Green Glass Love
by Kairi017
Summary: AU Penny/Sheldon. Penny and Sheldon meet at a regional theatre where they're starring opposite one another in a musical. OOC Sheldon, there will be angst and romance and all those good things! Rating K for now...will likely change as the story progresses ;)
1. Chapter 1

AN: This is AU, Penny is going to be as in character as I can manage while Sheldon is very, very OOC but adorable! At least I think so :)

This plot wouldn't get out of my head so I'm starting what feels like it could be an epic journey it's been a while since I've done anything other than a one shot and this is my first ever BBT fic. I'm excited about it, I hope you enjoy!

Unbeta'd all mistakes are mine.

Nothing is mine, everything belongs to the BBT powers that be. Except some original characters used for supporting roles.

* * *

Penny Connor was nearly vibrating with excitement as she rummaged in her backseat making sure she had everything she needed for her first day back with ART (Arcadia Regional Theatre). She had been performing for the quaint theatre company for nearly 10 years; since the summer after she turned 11. It was a second home, nestled in a small coastal town in Massachusetts situated between a lush green park with a creek running between the theatre parking lot and the greenspace, a lovely wooden bridge connecting the two. On the other side, a small but effective water park that wasn't open just yet but in about three weeks would be bustling with kids and sunbathers.

Penny had first been cast as Gracie Shinn, a small but important role in The Music Man. She and her mom had traveled from their home in Nebraska to this sweet little town to follow her 11 year old dreams of becoming a star. They met Sean and Mark, the incredible couple who owned North Shore and the rest, as they say, was history. Being a young child and her mother from out of town Sean and Mark gave them the option to stay in their guest house instead of company housing with the rowdy dancers. Penny's mom Tammy happily accepted and she and Mark became fast friends that first summer. Soon they were sharing nearly every dinner together, the adults sitting on the back patio as Penny played on the swing set or ran around with their dog Spike in the yard.

Penny had done exceptional in her role, when they announced the show line up for the following season and it included The Secret Garden they had offered Penny the lead in that show before she left town.

Their friendship and working relationship grew over the years and even when Penny became a teenager Sean and Mark continued to offer their guest house to her and Tammy before putting them up in company housing and they always accepted. Sean and Mark became like family and Penny truly loved them as such. They cast her in at least one show every summer but as she got older there were fewer and fewer leading roles that she could play, she was too old to play a child and too young to play an adult so some years she would only come in for the children's show. She had gotten to play some fun roles there though, Alice in Alice in Wonderland, Marie in the Aristocats and Lucky in 101 Dalmations.

Still, she always accepted when they called even if they only had a tiny part in their 45 minute long childrens show. This was her fourth year coming without her mother, she'd just turned 20 and was finally going to live in the actor housing. Her mom agreed to let her start making the trip alone when she was 16 as long as she stayed with Sean and Mark. Penny adored them so it was an easy compromise to make.

There was a bittersweet tinge to her emotions as she'd driven into town three days ago. She was excited to be an adult, she was playing the lead in Thoroughly Modern Millie this season, living in actor housing and driving her own car into town so she would have her own transportation. But a small part of her would miss living with Sean and Mark, spending evenings on their back deck, sipping lemonade and having Mark's homemade pancakes before rehearsal. She likened the feeling to leaving for college.

Now, she'd moved in to her apartment for the summer with her roommate Taylor whom she'd worked with a few times before and they were at the theatre for the first day of rehearsal. Penny always thought of the first day as an opportunity to make friends. They would do a meet and greet with the theatre backers, have a breakfast of bagels, fruit and donuts and do the table read of the show. Penny loved it, some other actors found it tedious but Penny was something of a theatre nerd and she loved every aspect of putting together a show; from the table read to the 14 hour days spent in the theatre doing tech.

She'd been texting with Bernadette, her favorite stage manager, earlier in the year and knew that the tiny was going to be back for her third year with the company. Bernadette was about two years older than Penny and started out with ART as an intern, this was her second season as a stage manager and the two bonded over their closeness in age and their nerdy love of theatre. Even amongst the other musical theatre actors, actresses and technicians the two were more obsessed than most.

Satisfied that she had all her extra clothes, shoes and water bottles Penny straightened and hoisted her bag over shoulder, stretching her back a little and taking a deep breath of the faintly salty air, "Taylor, are you ready to go in yet?" she asked after a moment watching her friend gather things.

Taylor stood up from her hunched position and gave Penny a glare over the top of the car, "Maybe if someone could drive and my bag hadn't been thrown all over the backseat it would have still had something in it when we parked and I wouldn't have to pack everything up again," she shot at her blonde friend.

"I told you not to leave it unzipped," Penny remarked as she stooped again and grabbed a tap shoe that was on the floor board behind her seat, handing it to Taylor with a sheepish grin. So maybe she wasn't the best driver in the world and maybe she'd driven half way across the country with her check engine light on. Taylor knew the risks when they agreed to carpool.

After another moment of Taylor doing a double check on her gear the two were headed in to the building. The rehearsal space was located on the third floor of the Arcadia Community Center. Technically it was large classrooms for community classes but every summer ART rented the whole third floor to rehearse in. They had a kitchen, two large rooms for rehearsal and a men's and women's bathroom on their floor. The lower level housed an ice rink and a gymnasium. There was a cut through to the theatre on the far end of the gym, it was nice if you needed to go between the two buildings and didn't want to go outside to do so. Some of the actors over the years had complained about the accommodations but Penny loved the building more than any other place in the world.

* * *

They trudged up the last flight of stairs and opened the door to the third floor, there were a few people milling around and the smell of rubber marley hit Penny's nose, the smell of summer. A broad grin stretched her mouth as she saw Stephanie, their production stage manager. She'd been with the company for the past six years and Penny loved her.

"Steph!" Penny called to grab the older woman's attention before she could duck into the kitchen.

Stephanie stopped and turned around with a smile regarding the girls, she opened her arms wide and Penny and Taylor both hurried to either side for a one armed hug.

"My children!" Stephanie exclaimed as she squeezed them tight to her sides.

Stephanie was an interesting lady, she referred to anyone working in the theatre under the age of 18 as a child. Some of the other teens had found it offensive but Penny always loved being one of her 'children'. She was a tall woman with a lot of extra 'fluff' to go around. Despite only being in her early 30's she was a very motherly figure and another piece of Penny's home away from home family.

"It's so good to be home," Penny said as she pulled out of the hug and shifted her bag to her other shoulder.

"Wouldn't be ART without you," Stephanie said with a wink. "You too, toots," she said to Taylor, giving her a whack on the backside. "Now, you girls go put your stuff down and find your scripts on the table, I have to put on another pot of coffee for all this company we have coming in!"

With that Stephanie disappeared into the small industrial (and a bit run down, if the truth be told) kitchen while Penny and Taylor walked in to the larger of the two rehearsal spaces where the meet and greet and table read would be taking place shortly. Penny found her spot at the table quickly and deposited her bag on her chair before making a beeline for Bernadette at the stage management table where she was seated talking animatedly to another of the stage managers.

As Penny neared the table Bernadette stood up and scurried around the table to meet her friend in a tight hug. "Bernie!" Penny all but squealed squeezing the petite blonde to her.

"Penny, I've missed you so much! This summer is going to be so great!" Bernadette squeaked in her high pitched voice.

"Ok, spill, what's the guy situation this season?" Penny asked in a hushed voice, lest Sean should pop out from somewhere and start lecturing her about how all men are evil and she should become a nun. One of his favorite topics since Penny had become old enough to be interested in the opposite sex.

Bernadette's eye got a little larger behind her wire rimmed glasses and she shot Penny a wicked smile while darting back to her seat to pull out a cast list. Penny followed close behind and Bernadette scooted to one side of the chair so Penny could perch on the other.

The girls excitedly went through the cast list, Bernadette pointing out newcomers who Penny might not know and trying to give her the lowdown on everything she'd been able to get out of Stephanie the week prior when they sat down to go through head shots and talk about the incoming talent.

Penny's eyes scanned the cast list and she noted five guys on the list that she hadn't worked with before. All the girls were pretty much local talent who she'd worked with at least a couple of times in the past. "Ok," Bernadette said pointing with her pen, "We know this guy," she indicated a man named Chris, "Is gorgeous as can be but gay." She continued on in this fashion bouncing around the sheet and telling Penny what was what.

They were giggling like school girls as the rest of the cast started to trickle in and Penny realized she needed to go mingle with them as well, she gave Bernadette a quick wink and a 'Thanks girl' before going over to a group who had clearly just arrived from housing in one of the company vans that were provided for those who came in without transportation to use to get to and from work each day.

Penny was sat in her chair at the table chatting with one of her best friends Tony when he walked in the room. He stopped in the doorway for a moment greeting another cast member on his way into the room and Penny took him in. Tall, over six foot at least, long legs and muscular arms, wavy dark hair not quite black but almost, sparkling blue eyes that were alight with humor and kindness, a full mouth with a wide, friendly smile and perfect white teeth. He was holding a pair of black framed glasses in one hand, his rehearsal bag slung over one broad shoulder. He was wearing a button down blue shirt with a black tee shirt under it on top of perfectly fitted dark wash jeans and a pair of well worn square toed black dress shoes completed the outfit.

She took all this in a matter of seconds and then he was heading towards her with a confident stride, eyes scanning the scripts for his name as he went. 'This is him,' Penny thought with a flutter in her stomach, 'This has to be Sheldon,' the man starring opposite her in this show. When he stopped and dropped his bag to the floor next to her, scooting it under the table with his foot and dropping lightly into the chair next to her her suspicions were confirmed.

He leaned over and looked at her script, "Hello, Ms. Dilmount," he drawled with a thick Texas twang using Penny's character name in the show to greet her; Millie Dilmount.

Her green eyes met his which were sparkling with mirth, "Mr. Cooper," she stated, extending her hand for him to shake in a mock cordial move, "It's a pleasure," she batted her eyes at him in an exaggerate fashion, enjoying the easy flirtation.

He surprised her by taking her hand and turning it, planting a chaste kiss on the back while looking up at her, "The pleasure is all mine," he said with a wink.

Penny could feel butterflies dancing in her stomach. He'd only been in the room less than five minutes and he was already having such a strong effect on her, how was she going to handle their kissing scene later in the week? She wondered to herself as he continued on.

"I must say, they've done a very good job casting their lead," he was saying looking pointedly at her.

Penny was a little flummoxed and searched for something to say as Sheldon rearranged the set up of his 'station' at the table. Putting the provided pen and pencil to the side of the script just so and lining up the bottom of his script with the bottom of his welcome packet folder. She was just about to open her mouth to reply when he spoke again.

"I'm going to grab a coffee before we get started, the kitchen is just down the hall, correct?" he asked her as he stood to go.

Penny finally found her voice and stood as well, "I'm just heading over to get some fruit so I'll come with you."

"Perfect, ladies first," he said gesturing that she should walk ahead of him and bowing his head slightly. She couldn't help but notice his large hands and long fingers as he gestured to the doorway. Nor could she help but notice how he towered over her and smelled like heaven.

Oh boy, she thought to herself, I could be in trouble.

The kitchen was crowded and they parted ways once inside, he headed to the coffee station and her to the breakfast buffet that had been laid out earlier by Stephanie.

Once she had her fruit and an ice cold bottle of water from the cooler on the floor she turned to find Sheldon but quickly saw that he was no longer in the room. She felt a tinge of disappointment as she walked back to the hallway.

"So, Penny, where are you from?" Sheldon's voice drawled very close to her ear. He'd been leaning against the wall in the hall and she'd nearly walked right past him without noticing so when he fell into step beside her and asked the question she nearly jumped a mile.

Penny acting on instinct slapped his arm playfully and said "You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

He smiled at her with a wicked grin, "I was just waiting out here for you to finish in the kitchen, a gentleman doesn't leave a lady when she has escorted him somewhere," he said with a playful tone wrapped in that velvety Texas drawl.

"Yeah, well, a gentleman wouldn't try to give a woman a coronary before 10am either but here we are," she said with a grin of her own.

They reached their seats and were sitting back down when Penny said, "Kansas, I'm from Kansas."

"A midwest girl, just like Millie," Sheldon stated.

"Someone's been reading their source material," Penny joked as she stabbed a piece of cantaloupe and popped it into her mouth.

"Of course, I alway read the script as soon as I'm cast, usually before I go to an audition if it's for an important role," Sheldon said, stirring his coffee and watching her carefully.

"That's very responsible of you," Penny said with a nod, "I figure I'll hear the story during the table read."

Sheldon tutted quietly as he shook his head and smiled.

"What?" Penny asked with a smile, "Mr. Cooper doesn't approve of my technique?"

"Indeed, Mr. Cooper does not," Sheldon said facing her once more with a smile on his lips, "But I suppose I have to get over it, I'm stuck with you for the next 8 weeks."

"Try all summer, Cooper," Penny said spearing a strawberry and bringing it to her lips.

"Ah, so you're in all summer as well?" he asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"All summer, every year for the last four years," Penny said with a fond smile.

"So, you've worked here before, eh? Tell me something, is Sean as nice as he seems or is he putting on?" Sheldon asked, leaning in and half whispering.

Penny smiled, she got this question a lot when people found out she'd worked with the company before. Sean was an incredibly nice, good person and sometimes, for the new folks, it could be a little hard to believe.

"He's just that nice," Penny said honestly, "He's one of the best people I've ever met, him and Mark both, they're amazing."

Sheldon nodded and before the conversation could go any farther Sean bustled into the room with a wide smile, waving to people here and there as he made his way to the front of the room.

Stephanie stood up. "Good morning ladies and gentlemen!" she said loudly, commanding the attention of the room which had by this time filled to nearly over capacity. All the department heads were in attendance as well as the designers, choreographer, the donors and the whole cast was seated around the table.

"I'm Stephanie, your production stage manager and I am here to help you with any questions, concerns or emotional disturbances but don't get it wrong, I am not your baby sitter, that's what my team is for," she said indicating the three other stage managers at the front of the room with a playful smile and a wink.

Stephanie opened every single meet and greet with the same jokes. They were silly but Penny always laughed anyway. Stephanie turned the room over to the producer, Greg who went around the room doing all the staff and cast introductions and things went on from there. Every meet and greet was pretty much the same, the donors got to come in and feel like a part of something as the designers showed sketches and talked about their inspiration. Sean would take over and tell everyone what the show was about and his vision for what they were going to do. It went on for about 90 minutes before they took a break and then went in to the table read.

The donors ate it up and were nearly on the edge of their seats the entire time. Stage management took this time to set up binders and finish last minute pieces of paperwork, sometimes the cast would pay attention, other times they would be eating their breakfast and staring glassy eyed toward the front of the room.

One of Penny's favorite parts was watching the crew members who had been conned into coming up to be introduced try to escape the room unnoticed. As soon as Greg was finished naming everyone in the room (sometimes donors included as he knew pretty much everyone very well) the shop guys would start trying to figure out the nearest exit so they could get back downstairs to work on the set, they were always the first ones out and the rest of the crew would follow suit.

The whole morning was mostly a song and dance for the donors to make them feel special and included. This particular morning though Penny was amazed as she sat next to Sheldon who paid rapt attention to everything that was said through the entire meeting. Penny loved this stuff and even she wasn't as focused as he seemed.

After the meet and greet portion of the morning was over they took a 10 minute break before launching into the table read, another one of Penny's favorite parts of the first day. It was the only time they'd hear the whole show together before the put togethers toward the end of their two week rehearsal process. Penny liked to hear the story this way; everyone reading their own parts, Sean half singing, half speaking the songs to them from his spot behind the piano. She marveled at the way Sheldon's thick drawl vanished completely as he read his lines. Accents were something Penny was still working on mastering, she had friends who could do everything from southern to cockney and back again.

When the table read was finally finished and the 'visitors' left, it was time for music rehearsal. After another break they all filed into the smaller rehearsal space which was set up with a piano and a couple dozen chairs for everyone to sit in. Penny took her spot on the 'girls' side of the room and she watched as Sheldon took a seat between one of her old friends Tony and another newcomer. He caught her eyes on him from across the room and winked. Penny could feel herself blushing and flashed him a quick smile before dropping her eyes to the sheet music in her script.

* * *

The rest of day one went by in a flurry of activity, mostly singing, a two hour break for lunch which Penny spent with Taylor and the stage management team and then as the rehearsal day was coming to a close Penny found herself alone in the kitchen, looking over lines as the ensemble actors rehearsed a song in the music rehearsal room and Sheldon was behind closed doors in the big room with Sean and Becca, their choreographer.

About forty five minutes before the end of the day Bernadette popped her head into the kitchen, "Penny, Sean wants to know if you'll come in and start some blocking for the scene he wants to rehearse first thing tomorrow."

"Ok, Bernie," Penny smiled as she gathered her script and a pencil, walking across the hall to the rehearsal room. When she entered she spotted Sheldon sitting off to one side of the marley covered dance floor/rehearsal space.

"Hey Sean," Penny said walking over to her friend and director who was standing at the front of the room.

"My love," he said, favoring her with a fond smile and opening his arms wide for her to step in for an all encompassing bear hug. "I know it isn't on our schedule for today but would you mind running the opening scene with Jimmy?" he asked before releasing her from the hug.

"Of course," she said pulling those pages from her script so they'd be easier to work with. Sheldon stood and walked over to where Penny was situated in the center of the room that signified center stage. She had changed her shoes after the donors had left that morning from her cute sandal wedges that looked perfect with her green summery dress into a pair of flat character shoes. Without the added three inches the wedges gave her Sheldon towered over her even moreso.

She looked up at him and fought a smile as she said, "Good afternoon, Mr. Cooper, you ready to rock?"

"Born ready, Kitten," he drawled back at her, a wide friendly smile stretching his lips.

Then Sean was in front of them, animatedly setting the scene; Millie had just been mugged on the street by some random man in the middle of the opening production number and Jimmy stumbles upon her as she's lamenting her bad fortune. Their first meeting does not go very well and at the end of it Millie is left holding her shoe in one hand shaking it at Jimmy's retreating back as he runs off the stage.

Sean let them read through the dialogue and move as they naturally would before making subtle changes here and there, directing Sheldon where to enter and exit the scene. It was a heated argument between the two about how Millie should give up this silly dream of making it in New York City and should go back home and her telling Jimmy to, basically, stuff it.

Penny could feel their chemistry in the fight, they weren't even touching one another at any point in the scene and she could feel the electricity rolling off of them. She was excited, the show was going to be great if they kept this kind of intensity going forward. She was a little scared by how his sparkling blue eyes made her tummy flutter and his smile made her a little weak in the knees.

They ran the scene twice before Stephanie subtly cleared her throat signaling to Sean that his time was up, he looked at his watch and dismissed them for the day.

Sheldon flashed a grin at Penny, "Not bad, Dilmount," he said, referring to her as her character once again.

"Not bad yourself, Cooper," Penny said with a smile of her own.

Sheldon seemed to run his eyes up and down her body once and she felt tingly all over from it. Then he suddenly turned on his heel and headed back to his bag to put his things away.

Sean was in front of Penny in a second, "You are exquisite, my darling," he said taking her gently by the shoulders and holding her at arms length as if to inspect her.

Penny brought one hand up to touch Seans wrist, "Thank you Sean, that means a lot," she said sincerely. Penny had put a lot of time and money into her acting career over the years and getting validation from the man who gave her her first big break was very affirming for her. She vowed right then that she would make this man proud every time she set foot on his stage as Millie. She just wanted him to keep beaming at her with that proud papa smile forever.

Sean squeezed her hand, "It's going to be a good one, love," he said as he released her.

Penny nodded, barely able to keep her grin from splitting her face open as she turned to leave the room. She was almost out the door when Sheldon caught her, "He's right you know, it's going to be a good show, I can feel it."

"I know," Penny said softly, the butterflies returning to her stomach at his closeness and how he leaned into her. "You were the perfect choice for Jimmy," she said meeting his blue eyes steadily.

"I know," Sheldon said with a soft chuckle. Penny rolled her eyes and brushed past him with a swat to his shoulder, "Real modest, Cooper," she said with a laugh.

The two walked into the kitchen across the hall which was now bustling and noisy as can be. Some of the local actors had gathered their things and were on their way out but mostly everyone was in the kitchen milling around, trying to decide who was going to ride in which car and where they were going when they left; grocery store, gym or home.

There were about 10 people trying to decide where to go as Penny slowly put her things in her bag. Taylor was packed and ready but sitting off to the side of the room talking to her friend Chris with whom she was almost always paired with for any partner work in the dances due to their ridiculous height. Penny purposefully stayed behind, taking her time while the rest of the 'out of towners' made their car decisions. She offered to take anyone back to the apartments who may not want or need to go anywhere else. Secretly hoping Sheldon would take her up on the offer of a ride.

He ended up heading to the grocery store, however while Chris and Tony rode back with Penny and Taylor. On the way home the girls invited the guys to come over for dinner, which Taylor was going to cook, a quick pasta dish and a simple salad. Then they decided they'd do face masks and maybe pop open a bottle of wine to celebrate a great first day.

"So…." Taylor said shooting a glance Penny's way, "What's going on with you and Sheldon?"

Tony let out a squeak of excitement and popped his head up between the front seats, "Is something going on? Are we going to have a real life romance? Come on Penny! Spill!" he insisted with an excited smile lighting up his handsome features.

"There isn't anything going on," Penny said trying to hide a smile as she thought of the way the handsome blue eyed man looked at her.

"I don't believe that for a second!" Chris exclaimed looking excited as well, "He's handsome, am I right? It's ok to have a crush on him."

"I have a crush on him!" Tony said with a large smile.

"Ok, stop it you two horn dogs, I'm pretty sure he's not playing for your team…not if the way he was looking at Penny all day is any indication," Taylor said, shushing the exclamations from the boys in the backseat.

"I don't know what you're all talking about!" Penny exclaimed, "All we did was run a scene together this evening. That is what we've been hired to do, act in a show together," Penny said chastising them all but the smile tugging at the corners of her lips told a different story.

"I see that smile!" Tony said, dramatically collapsing backwards in his seat, "We're going to have a real love story this summer!" he declared with an overly dramatic sigh.

"Ok," Taylor said, "That's enough out of you and your one man show you're performing back there, when Penny is ready to tell us about her crush, she will. Until then, it's just acting," Taylor finished her sentence with air quotes on the word acting and Penny rolled her eyes.

Later as they were making dinner and wondering if they should turn on a movie and if so, what movie Penny's mind wandered back to the rehearsal room earlier that evening. That chemistry certainly didn't feel like just acting, she thought to herself as she served salad into bowls for everyone and they sat down to eat.

All night she was distracted by thoughts of Texas accents and blue eyes. Oh boy, she thought to herself as she laid down for bed a few hours later, I'm gonna be in trouble this summer.


	2. Chapter 2

The following morning after her shower, Penny found herself standing in front of her closet eyeing her options for the day. Yesterday she'd sneaked a peek at the rehearsal schedule for the day and she knew that her whole day was dancing. She, along with the entire ensemble were going to be learning the choreography for the opening number and the whole morning along with 3/4 of the afternoon had been blocked out for it, with an option for them to use the whole afternoon if Becca thought they needed it. She would definitely want the time if Sean allowed her to take it.

Under any normal circumstances, Penny would put her still wet hair into a messy bun on top of her head, throw on a tank top and a pair of sweat pants or shorts and call it a day. This morning, however, she knew she would be working the scene from yesterday with Sheldon as it fell right in the middle of the opening number and Sean wanted to see the continuity between the scene and the number.

So, she could dress cute and then have to change, she could wear makeup and then sweat it all off, she could do her hair only to have it up in a bun within the first 20 minutes of dance or she could do what she always did and go completely casual.

Penny flopped onto her bed with a sigh as Taylor popped her head in, "My deodorant just ran out…" she said waving the now empty container with a hopeful look on her face.

"In the top drawer," Penny said waving toward her dresser, "We're going shopping after rehearsal today."

"Great!" Taylor chirped as she sprayed on some of Penny's deodorant, dropped the aerosol can back in the drawer and then perched on the opposite side of the bed from Penny.

"So, whatcha doin?" she asked glancing at the digital alarm clock and seeing that they needed to be in the car in half an hour if they were going to make it to Starbucks before rehearsal.

"I don't know what to wear," Penny said sitting back up and regarding her closet as though it were her enemy.

"Seriously? It's a dance day, put on a skanky tank top that Sean will not approve of and some shorts that say Juicy on the ass and let's go, mama needs her latte," Taylor said, gesturing to her herself as mama as she stood to leave the room. Then something seemed to dawn on her and she stopped in the door frame, turned to face Penny and said, "You want to look cute!" in an accusatory tone.

"No I don't!" Penny protested as her face turned bright red and she tried to hide behind her hands.

Taylor grinned and danced out of the room singing, "Penny's got a crush, Penny's got a crush," all the way through the apartment.

"Shut up!" Penny yelled back as Taylor's song spurred her to prove her friend wrong. She stood up to grab a tank top, pale green to match her eyes. Cute but not too obvious. She wiggled into a pair of beige tights before slipping on black Juicy shorts. Throwing her hair up into a messy-but-cute bun she applied a little lip gloss and slipped her toes out through the holes at the bottom of the tights so she could slide her flip flops on.

Taylor was dressed in a similar fashion and waiting on the couch with her bag as Penny came hurrying out of her bedroom, grabbing random things from the kitchen for her morning snack and opening the fridge to retrieve her salad for lunch.

"Girl, move it! Starbucks is waiting!" Taylor said standing up and hoisting her bag onto her shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming," Penny said distractedly as she made sure her character shoes, both flats and heels were in her bag as well as her tap shoes. She was fairly certain they wouldn't be tapping but best to be prepared, always.

* * *

The girls made it to the ACC (Arcadia Community Center) with almost 15 minutes to spare and with a quick survey of the small parking lot Penny saw that the other cars from housing weren't there yet. As they walked in chatting about dance Penny saw her favorite maintenance man, Jerry across the lobby.

"Jerry!" she called, the older man stopped and turned to see who was calling him. When he spotted Penny he smiled widely and opened his arms for a hug.

Jerry had been working as the head of maintenance at the ACC since Penny's first season there. He was a kind, older black man of about 60 with an impressive bald spot atop his head, kind eyes and the best smile Penny had ever seen. He was her favorite person in the world as a child because he 'snuck' her and her mom into the water park whenever she asked him to. Technically the water park was only for Arcadia Bay citizens but if you were from ART and friendly enough with the maintenance guys, they let you in the side gate.

"Aren't you a sight for sore eyes!" Jerry exclaimed as he squeezed Penny tight. She breathed in his familiar scent of Old Spice and peppermint, just like her grandpa had always smelled before he passed.

"Jerry," Penny scolded, "You know I'd never stand you up for our ice cream date!"

Every summer when Penny was a child she would give Jerry and his wife her free tickets to the shows and they would take her and her mom out for ice cream afterwards. He'd sit in the audience and clap and cheer for Penny like she was the star, even when she only had a tiny part. After the show they'd go for ice cream to the little shop a block up the street, his treat, to repay them for the tickets. It became tradition.

"You do love your ice cream," he said with a chuckle.

"Guess what," Penny said, lowering her voice conspiratorially and leaning in to Jerry.

"What's that, little lady?" he asked adopting her softer tone.

"I'm playing the lead in the first show!" she exclaimed, excited to share the news with her old friend.

"You're kidding me!" he said with pride in his eyes, "Seems like just yesterday you were playing the little girl in that show the hidden garden, you sure were great back then and I bet you're going to be even better now."

"Thank Jerry, I can't wait for you to see it! And I'm here all summer again, so you're going to owe me three bowls of ice cream," she said teasingly.

"Well worth it, kid," he said with a smile. Jerry wasn't much for musical theatre but the little blonde girl with the big green eyes had captured his heart her first year there and his wife sure loved getting to see the productions that they were never able to afford tickets to.

"I gotta get upstairs," Penny said glancing at the clock and noting that she'd been chatting for nearly five minutes, "I'll see you around though!"

"Have a good day at rehearsal," Jerry called to her retreating back as she caught up with Taylor at the stairwell and they hurried up the stairs together.

* * *

Penny dropped her bag in the kitchen and bounced into the big rehearsal room where they'd be dancing all day, "Good morning Stage Management!" she chirped as she grabbed a yoga mat from the corner along with a foam roller and set up in front of their table to stretch for the morning of dancing.

Bernadette joined her on the floor, chatting as well as helping her stretch if she needed it. Stephanie left them to chat for about five minutes before she needed Bernadette to help her set some things up in the small room where Sean would be rehearsing scene work all day. He wasn't a fan of working in the smaller room, it was quite a bit smaller than the stage whereas the big room supplied the same amount of work space as the actual stage. He preferred to have the larger space to work with but on dance days, he had to compromise. Which he always did with quite a lot of complaining and groaning which Penny had always suspected was more for show than anything else.

As Bernadette hurried after Stephanie a carload of folks from company housing came noisily up the stairs and before long there were a couple of other dancers stretching alongside Penny. Sheldon walked into the room with a bottle of water and perched on a chair at the edge of the dance area near Penny and the others who were stretching.

"Good morning, Cooper," Penny called to him, capturing his attention as she stretched her adductors by stretching her legs into a split and laying forward, resting on her elbows. She could feel her inner thigh muscles burning with the stretch as she propped her chin on her hand.

"Good mornin', darlin'," he drawled with a smile.

"Come stretch with me!" Penny half asked, half demanded and Sheldon quirked an eyebrow before placing his water on the floor next to his chair and joining her on the floor.

"I'm not a dancer, nor do they have me scheduled to do anything remotely dance related today so I hardly need to stretch but I will sit with you," Sheldon said with a wink as he watched her slide from her split into a sitting side stretch where she laid over and grabbed one foot with her hand, practically folding her body in half sideways while the other foot was placed on her thigh near her groin like a flamingo.

"Thanks, I appreciate the company while I try to wake my muscles up. Besides, it's always good to start a day of rehearsal with a little stretching," she said nudging his leg with her toes.

"So," she continued, "What's the word, hummingbird?"

"Well, I was doing some research last night that you may find interesting," he said with a glimmer in his eye.

"Oh yeah? What about?" Penny asked continuing to the foam roller to stretch her back out, she laid across it with the roller in the small of her back and rocked back and forth a few times.

"Our little show here. Did you know that Thoroughly Modern Millie is based on a film from 1967 of the same name and that the film is based on the British musical 'Chrysanthemum' which opened in London in 1956?" Sheldon said, eyes shining with excitement over sharing this knowledge with her.

"Huh," Penny said looking up at Sheldon from her position on the roller. She saw that he had moved into her flamingo position from before and was now stretching along with her.

"Fascinating isn't it? How the show has been transformed and reinvented over the years," he said.

Penny thought about it for a moment before replying "It is pretty interesting. You're very smart aren't you?" Penny asked him in all seriousness.

"Well, I do have two masters degrees, one in science and one in the arts," he said casually switching to stretch the other leg.

"You have what now?" Penny asked looking at him in surprise. She'd only just finished her bachelors degree in theatre and thought she was doing pretty well for her 21 years of age, he couldn't be that much older than her and he had double masters degrees.

"Two masters degrees," Sheldon repeated, "I double majored in theatre and physics."

"That's pretty impressive," Penny said just before Stephanie came in and boomed her 'Good morning ladies and gentlemen' line which signaled everyone to hush up and listen as herself and Sean ran through the days' schedule with the company.

Penny continued with her stretching but took casual note of the fact that Bernadette was driving Sheldon over to the costume shop for his fitting later that morning. She also noted that Sheldon had stopped stretching immediately and given Stephanie and Sean his undivided attention as they discussed the schedule.

Once they were done going over the schedule Sean asked Penny and Sheldon to start off with their scene from the day before. He wanted to see it again before Becca took over with dance even though the scene technically comes in the middle of the dance.

As they ran the lines, Penny felt the same heat between them as the day before. She almost felt like things were even more intense with an audience than they had been before with only Sean and Stephanie in the room watching. It was as if electricity crackled between them as they argued through their lines and before he turned and stalked away from her Penny had a wild thought that this would've been the perfect place for Jimmy and Millie's first kiss.

She shook her head to stop that train of thought as she carried on with her lines until Sean held up a hand to stop her.

"Sheldon," Sean called her scene partner back to the center of the room as the ensemble clapped and whistled for them, "You two," Sean leaned in dramatically, "Are amazing!" he exclaimed. "Oh I knew you'd be good together but, my oh my!" he exclaimed with excitement. "Keep this up kids, keep it up, this show is going to be magic!"

They ran through the scene twice more with Becca calling out entrances and exits for Sheldon and the dancers who would be onstage directly before and after the scene. Then Sean bustled off into the other space across the hall and Bernadette hurried Sheldon out the door to get to his fitting.

That was when the really hard work started as Becca took over, teaching them choreography rapid fire and working their butts off. The rest of the morning flew by.

Before Penny knew it Stephanie was breaking the company for lunch and Penny flopped onto the dance floor where she stood to take off her shoes. She'd bought new character heels for the summer and was still breaking them in. Her blisters had blisters.

She stashed her shoes neatly on the floor under one of the stage management tables before hobbling over to the kitchen to get her salad out of the fridge. If it hadn't been a dance morning, or if she'd been wearing her old shoes that were practically as comfy as sneakers, she would've taken her lunch over to the park and enjoyed the warm, sunny spring day. But she was pooped and wanted to rest before the afternoon session began so she plopped at the table and opened her salad bowl as stage management came hurrying in grabbing sandwiches and other portable lunch food, signaling to Penny that they were heading out on a 'field trip'.

Part of the reason the company had a two hour lunch break, the main reason really, was that stage management needed to have time to go out to the shops and check on things, go down to see how the set was coming along and whatever else it was that they did outside the rehearsal rooms during these two weeks to make everything run so smoothly once the actors moved into the theatre.

"Where are you guys off to?" Penny asked stabbing a forkful of salad.

"Tour of the set, or what there is of it so far, if I'm being honest, it's kind of a mess down there," Stephanie said as she grabbed a water out of the fridge.

"Ooh, that sounds fun," Penny said genuinely. She loved to see the process, it was amazing to her how a group of 10 or 12 people put together these huge structures in a matter of weeks.

"It will be," Bernadette responded as she petted a visibly rattled Stephanie's shoulder to calm her down. "Gotta get mama in a good mood before we go talk to the crew and designers," she said to Penny while nodding her head with a large and clearly fake smile plastered on her pretty face.

Bernadette had told Penny the day before how Stephanie had been arguing with the head of the tech crew for the past two weeks over schedules and how behind everything was. Things were usually like this and it was nothing new but Sean had caught wind of the delays, everyone usually tried to keep him at least a little bit in the dark about the real timelines, knowing that things would come together fine in the end and that Sean would only get stressed out for no reason. Somehow, he'd found out however and he was getting stressed which put a lot of stress on Stephanie.

"Hey, things are gonna come together mama, you know it always does," Penny said with what she hoped was a reassuring smile.

"I know sweetie but you know how Sean gets," Stephanie said patting Penny on her shoulder as she passed and left the room.

"Good luck," Penny hissed as Bernadette and the other two stage managers left behind Stephanie. Bernadette flashed her a thumbs up and disappeared down the hall.

Penny appreciated the quiet that fell over the rehearsal space when everyone was out for lunch. Most of the out-of-towners went back to the apartments for lunch, it was only a fifteen minute drive so it was easily doable in the time allotted but Penny didn't like to waste any of her break time in a car. She preferred going to the park or catching a quick cat nap if there was a comfy set piece in one of the rehearsal rooms to lay on.

Penny was washing out her bowl to stash in her bag when she heard Preston, the music director, playing scales on the piano down the hall and a male voice warming up. Curiosity getting the best of her, Penny laid her bowl on a towel to drain and tiptoed down the hall to the smaller rehearsal room to see who was down there working.

A huge smile crept onto her face as she saw Sheldon with his back to the half open door, warming up to rehearse something. She took the opportunity to admire his back, his broad shoulders tapered to a slim waist and long legs. Often, Penny's type was more muscular but there was something so appealing about Sheldon's lean, swimmers build.

Quiet as she could, Penny slipped into the room and perched on a chair in the corner to watch. It was kind of an unofficial rule, if the door is open, you can come on in and watch whatever is being worked on. If the door is closed, you stay out and respect that the actor wants their privacy. Penny certainly took this open door as an invitation to her.

Sheldon finished the scales as Preston noticed Penny and favored her with a smile and a quick wink. Penny smiled back and waved a small wave to the man but Sheldon didn't seem to notice that anyone else had entered the room. He was so focused on what he was doing. Preston waited for Sheldon to arrange his sheet music on the music stand before him and then when Sheldon gave him a slight nod of his head Preston started playing the song.

Penny recognized it from the table read as Sheldon's big solo number. The song is situated after his character, Jimmy, has another argument with Millie and basically the whole song is him trying to convince himself he doesn't need to be with this one girl to be happy, he's better off bouncing from 'gal to gal' but ends with him admitting that he's 'got it bad' for Millie.

The song is upbeat and fun, it's sure to be a big crowd pleaser. Penny settled back in her chair to listen to Sheldon work through the song. She nearly melted as his velvety tenor voice seemed to caress the words to the song moreso than sing them. As the song sped up and he began to tap his foot along to the beat and snap his fingers she nearly swooned. He was the kind of guy she could easily picture in 1920's New York, the time period when the show was set.

As he finished and Preston was playing the ending strains of the accompaniment Sheldon stretched and when he turned his head just so while rolling his neck he caught sight of Penny, turning to face her fully as Preston played the final cord.

"Been there long, darlin?" Sheldon asked with a playful smile.

"Door was open and I was bored," Penny said, she could feel her face turning red as she spoke.

"Mmm" he hummed at her, "So, what did you think?"

"I thought you sounded great, really great. I could see you in 1920's New York," she said, "Wearing a pin striped suit and crooning in a speakeasy."

Sheldon chuckled a little, "Did you know that speakeasies got their name because of the practice of speaking quietly about such a place in public, or when inside it, so as not to alert the police or neighbors."

"I did not know that," Penny said, it was pretty impressive that he could whip out facts like that at will.

"Wanna do this again?" Preston asked Sheldon, interrupting their conversation.

Sheldon turned his full attention back to the music director and said, "I would like to do it again, just as soon as Penny sings her song."

"Me?" Penny said, "Cooper, I've barely looked at my number."

"Neither had I, come on now, up you get," he said walking over to her and shooing her out of her seat and toward the piano.

Penny shot him a glare, "Ok, fine, but you don't get to judge me, I just ate cheese it makes my voice all blech."

Sheldon raised an eyebrow at her and took her seat as Preston pulled out her sheet music and handed her a copy. She actually had a couple of solos in the show that Preston could've picked from but of course, he handed her the biggest one in the show. A song about realizing she loves her broke friend Jimmy and wants to be with him, not her rich boss who's she's been trying to get with through the whole show.

Penny does a quick vocal warm up and then launches into the song. She'd spent her drive from Kansas listening to the Millie soundtrack so she wasn't being 100% honest about having no familiarity with the number. She just hadn't looked at the actual sheet music just yet. While she marks the bigger notes at the end because she's not properly warmed up she feels like she's done a good job by the time she finishes.

Sheldon startles her by clapping loudly behind her and she turns around feeling her cheeks starting to flame again even as she dipped into a little curtsey. She's always felt that performing for five hundred people is far easier than for just two or three and knowing that he was listening makes her feel suddenly self conscious.

"It was ok?" she asks and feels in the pit of her stomach that if he tells her she wasn't good she might crawl in a hole and die.

"You were magnificent, Penny, truly," Sheldon breathed, sounding very impressed. "And when you let loose and belt those notes at the end you're going to bring the house down," he said honestly as he crossed the room to her.

"Come on, Coop, you're just saying that," she says blushing furiously.

"I'm not, I don't 'just say things'," he assured her.

"Ok, you're up, get another run in before Preston goes out for his twenty minute smoke break," Penny said feeling like she was walking on air as she made her way back to the chair.

Sheldon ran through his song once more, this time with more actions and emotion than the first, now that he had the notes down he was playing more. Penny thought it was a joy to watch and couldn't wait to sit and watch him do the song during the put-together later in the week.

"You're both incredible, the show is going to be amazing, I'm gonna smoke," Preston said dryly but honestly when Sheldon finished his second run through.

"You gotta stop that, you're a vocal coach, you know better!" Penny scolded Preston as he walked past her out of the room.

"Little girl, you do as I say, not as I do, capisce?" he called over his shoulder as he opened the door to the stairwell and disappeared.

Penny shook her head at the older man as Sheldon came over to take a seat next to her, "What does your afternoon look like?" he asked as he put his sheet music back into the binder with his script.

"Dance, dance and more dance," Penny said looking at the clock. Forty five minutes left of their lunch break which meant probably thirty minutes of quiet before people started showing back up for the afternoon. "Which means, I need to go tape up these blisters before I put those shoes back on," she said standing to cross the hall into the other room. "What're you doing this afternoon?" she asked over her shoulder.

"Scene work with Sean," Sheldon replied as followed Penny back into the large rehearsal room.

"Oh, I love doing quiet scene work with him, that's when you get the best tips and tricks," Penny said as she walked over to the first aid kit behind the stage management table.

Sheldon merely nodded and commented, "Good time to break in new character shoes," with a mirthful gleam in his eye.

"Are you teasing me, Coop? After we just had that great moment back there where we said nice things to one another?" Penny asked as she squatted and pulled out the band aids and medical tape.

Sheldon sat next to her on the marley floor as she started to apply bandaids. He seemed to notice her feet for the first time and shook his head, "Wait, you're going to want to clean those before you put on bandaids," he said standing to grab some antiseptic pads from the first aid kit.

"Probably a good idea," Penny admitted as she took a handful of the pads from him and ripped one open. "I always forget that part, I just slap a bandaid on and go on."

Sheldon shook his head, "Dancers," he scoffed, "You're all a bunch of barbarians."

"We're just tough, unlike you singers," Penny shot back with a grin. She was slipping back into that easy banter with him and she loved the feeling. Penny continued applying bandaids to each toe on both feet, both heels and the ball of her foot, layering medical tape on top for extra security.

"So," she said, "Tell me more about these two masters degrees you have, how old are you anyway? I'm happy to have my bachelors at 21."

Sheldon told her he was 25 and then launched into a tale of how he had wanted to be both a scientist and an actor his whole life so when he got to college he did both, double majoring in theatre performance and physics. Penny enjoyed the cadence and rhythm of his speech as much as she liked learning more about him. That accent was going to be her undoing.

"You're basically a genius then, right? I mean, a masters in physics? That's hard stuff," Penny said, feeling a little dumb calling physics 'stuff'.

"Math has always come naturally to me, it's like a second language that I speak fluently. But yes, I am quite intelligent," Sheldon said sidestepping the question and yet answering it at the same time. Penny could tell that his answer was an understatement, that he was just being humble. A double masters at 25? She wasn't usually impressed by intelligence but that was kind of hot.

Before long other cast members started to trickle in and stage management returned from their trip downstairs looking a little worse for wear. Stephanie was clearly flustered as she came in, grabbed her phone and started making calls while the other three stage managers sank down into their chairs looking exhausted. Penny caught Bernadettes eye and the petite girl just shook her head and closed her eyes. 'Not a great time then,' Penny thought as she finished up her feet and slipped the foot of her tights down to cover each foot, putting the hole at the bottom of her foot and securing all her wrapping in place before slipping her shoes back on.

Sheldon stood up first and graciously held out his hand to help Penny up off the ground, "My lady," he said as he offered her his hand.

"Such a gentleman," she smiled, taking his hand and using it to lever herself up, she wasn't paying attention though and caught her heel on a seam in the marley causing her to trip into Sheldons' chest, his arms came up instinctively to wrap around her and hold her steady. He held her there a moment, her looking up into his eyes and him gazing down at her.

"You ok there, Kitten?" he asked softly, glancing down at her feet.

Penny was more concentrated on the fluttery feeling in her heart as she stood cradled against Sheldon's chest than she was on her feet which she subconsciously knew were both fine. She rotated both ankles around in turn for effect and whispered, "Yeah, I'm fine."

Sheldon nodded down at her before sliding his hands from around her waist, up her arms and to her shoulders, giving her a little push to stand upright completely before backing away a half step.

This all took place in a matter of seconds and as soon as Sheldon released her Penny was surrounded by Sean and stage management. Bernadette was grabbing the tape to seal the seam in the marley, Stephanie was calling for ice and asking if she was ok, Sean was inquiring as to why there was a seam in the first place.

"Guys!" Penny exclaimed, "I'm fine, it was my fault, I knew that seam was there, I just wasn't paying attention."

"We're fixing it now!" Bernadette called from her place kneeling by the seam with Corey another stage manager.

"It's fine, I'm fine! See?" Penny said rotating her ankles and jumping a little.

Stephanie's eyes searched Penny's face critically for a couple of seconds before declaring, "Ok, she's fine." Which meant the 'emergency' was over and as soon as the offending seam was taped over everyone went back to what they were previously doing except Sean who worried over for another two or three minutes before she convinced him everything was fine.

Penny caught Sheldon's eye and flashed him a half smile, raised her eyebrows and rolled her eyes as if to say 'Wackos.' He smirked back at her and winked before turning on his heel and leaving the room to go prepare for his afternoon with Sean.

The afternoon session went by much like the morning had, very quickly. On dance days it never seemed like there was enough time and the opening number of this show was a monster. Penny had a feeling they'd be tweaking and cleaning it until opening.

When Stephanie finally gave Becca the sign that her time was up it was time to release the cast Penny breathed a sigh of relief before walking over to plop into a chair next to Taylor and remove her shoes.

"How are the new shoes doing?" Taylor asked as Penny removed them.

Penny sighed as she saw blood in several places through the bandages but she smiled at Taylor, "Great, I think they'll be good to go in a day or two." Breaking in new shoes was always a difficult and painful task. It was part of the reason most dancers used their character dance shoes until they literally fell apart. The other part of the reason being that they were terribly expensive.

"Ooh, poor thing," Taylor winced, looking at Penny's battered feet and sympathizing with her.

"It'll be fine, we really do need to go to the store though, I need to get some epsom salts and a tub to soak these puppies in tonight and you have got to get your own deodorant!" Penny said standing up to go into the kitchen to gather her things.

"And toothpaste," Taylor added with a smile, walking alongside her friend.

"You stole my toothpaste?" Penny exclaimed with a playful smirk as the girls walked across the hall and into the crowded kitchen where their bags were.

"Just borrowed a little," Taylor said then she darted to the opposite side of the room out of Penny's reach when she saw the blonde's hand coming toward her to swat her shoulder. Penny shook her head smiling as she dropped her shoes into her bag.

Tony was gathering his things next to Penny, "So what are you girls up to tonight?" he asked as he stuffed his dance shoes into his bag and pulled out some flip flops.

"I don't know, we have to run to the store on our way home and then maybe a movie and some dinner at home," Penny said, "You're always invited, my love," she said to Tony with a warm smile.

"Thanks doll, I might pop over for the movie, text me when you know what you're doing, I think Chris and I might be having dinner out with some of the rest of the cast," Tony said dangling the open invitation out there if Penny wanted to take it.

"Ok, I have to get off my feet, I'll text you though when we decide on a movie and get settled, you can come down and rub my feet," she teased, knowing her friend had a slight foot phobia.

"It would be my honor," he said, rolling his eyes and leaning in for a kiss.

Penny had met Tony four years earlier during his first show at ART. They quickly became best friends and he spent the night with her at Sean and Marks house almost as often as he slept in his own bed that summer. They would stay up late watching Sex and the City and talking about boys. He was her first gay best friend and he had just come out the year before so having a friend that he could openly gush about boys with was a novelty for him.

That first summer, he had declared her his girlfriend and they'd kept their playful relationship up ever since, he would buy her flowers for opening night, she would bring him little presents here and there when she was out and saw something she thought he might like and they always kissed one another hello and goodbye. Just a quick peck on the lips but always a kiss. She figured that at this point she'd probably kissed Tony more than any other guy, onstage and off.

The room was emptying out quickly by this time and Penny was about to walk out the door calling to Taylor to hurry up when Sheldon stopped her, "Penny, are you going straight home?" he asked.

"We have to run by the store for a couple of things real quick, need a ride?" she asked.

"If you wouldn't mind. One car is going to the gym and the other to a restaurant and I kind of just want to go home," Sheldon said.

"Sure thing, Coop. You're welcome to come down and have dinner with me and Taylor, I'm sure she's going to cook me something yummy and then we're going to watch a movie," Penny offered.

Sheldon considered for a moment and then said, "Yes, that would be nice, I'll just go home to change and then come down."

"Sounds good," Penny said to him and then turned to see what was keeping Taylor. Chris, of course. Penny rolled her eyes at the two of them and then called, "Taylor! Let's go before I leave you!"

Taylor hopped off the table she was perched on said another couple of words to Chris and then hurried over to Penny and Sheldon.

"Keep your pants on, I was coming," Taylor said.

Penny shot her a look that said 'Yeah, right' and grabbed the girls hand, lacing their fingers together she pulled her from the room, "Sheldon's having dinner with us," Penny told her as they waited for the elevator. Neither girl had it in them to take the stairs after dancing all day.

"Great, are you staying for the movie?" she asked him.

"Depends on what girly nonsense you two pick," he teased them lightly.

The three made their way to the car chatting about movies and their rehearsal day. Sheldon felt his time with Sean was incredibly helpful and was happy to have had such a large chunk of one on one time with their director. The girls filled him on the horrors and wonders of the opening number. Both were confident that it was going to be amazing but it was a lot of work too.

The three made it through the drug store in record time, going in three different directions when they entered the large Walgreens, Taylor heading for toiletries, Penny to the pharmacy and Sheldon towards the small grocery section. They met back up at the front of the store, paid for their items and were back in the car.

"Thank you again for the ride home, Penny," Sheldon said from the backseat.

"Don't worry about it, I'm always happy to give you a ride if you need it," Penny said catching his eye in the rearview mirror and smiling. She hoped he would take her up on the offer more frequently.

When they reached the apartment complex the three got out of the car and parted ways, Sheldon promising to be down in fifteen minutes for dinner.

Penny and Taylor hurried inside and each took a quick shower, they were putting the finishing touches on a quick pasta dish and salad as Sheldon knocked on the door.

 _Knock, knock, knock_

"Penny and Taylor."

 _Knock, knock, knock_

"Penny and Taylor."

 _Knock, knock, knock_

"Penny and Taylor."

The girls shared a confused look before Penny ran over to open the door.

"Good evening, Kitten," Sheldon said with a smile, "My mother always told me that a true gentleman never shows up at a ladies door step empty handed," he continued holding out a bottle of wine.

"Tell your mother I said 'Thank you'," Penny said putting emphasis on the thank you with a smile and gesturing for him to come in.

"Dinner's almost ready," Taylor called from the kitchen, "Grab a seat and make yourself at home!" she gestured to the small dining table situated partway between the living room and kitchen in the open concept living space.

Sheldon crossed over to the table and perched on one chair before seeming to change his mind and switching to the one next to it. He did this once more before settling in the chair Penny had been sitting in.

"So, what do you think about Joy Ride for tonights movie festivities?" Penny asked as they brought the food over from the kitchen.

"I haven't seen it yet, it looks like a good option to me," he responded with a nod.

The three ate and chatted about favorite horror movies, Penny texted Tony to let him know what they were watching and before long Penny was happily sipping a glass of wine on the couch with her feet soaking in deliciously hot, soothing water. Sheldon was situated in an armchair next to Pennys side of the couch and Taylor in the chair opposite him.

They were chatting about previous shows they'd worked on and waiting for Tony to arrive before starting the movie. It wasn't long before he swept in with a flamboyant air, "My love," he addressed Penny on the couch, dropping to his knees at her side and taking her free hand between his own, kissing it for added effect.

"Oh god," Taylor said, "Here we go."

Sheldon looked on with curiosity.

"Is there anything I can do to ease your pain?" Tony asked with wide eyes, rubbing her leg.

Penny widened her eyes and pouted out her bottom lip in an attempt to look even more pitiful, "I don't know," she said with a dramatic sigh, "It hurts ever so bad!" She exclaimed putting her wrist over her forehead and slumping back into the couch cushions in a mock faint, careful not to spill the wine in her other hand.

Taylor groaned and dropped her head onto the back of her chair. She'd seen these two go on their overly dramatic tangents about so many things in the three years she'd known them. Sometimes one of them would be sick or injured, a TV show one or both liked might get canceled, a new movie they thought looked good might be coming out, every time ARTs new season lineup was announced, sometimes just because they were bored during tech. Everything was always a huge production with them. Mostly Taylor found it amusing but part of her enjoyment was grumbling about how much she hated them both while they were doing it.

Tony shot Taylor a death glare and then turned his attention back to Penny, "Can I bring you an aspirin? Anything, to make you feel better?"

Penny took the opportunity to weasel a wine glass fill up and an aspirin out of her 'boyfriend' as she'd actually not thought to take one before sitting down.

"I'll be as quick as I can!" Tony said as soon as she issued the request, jumping up and taking her glass before hurrying to the kitchen.

"I'll wait for you, my darling," Penny said, reaching one arm out toward him as he went.

"What on earth…." Sheldon asked, leaving the question hanging in the air.

"Don't mind them," Taylor said, "They put on these two person productions all the time, for no reason, when no one has asked to see them," she shot a look at Penny who in turn rolled her eyes.

"Me and Tony like to play," she said to Sheldon, "He's one of my very best friends."

Sheldon nodded and said, "In my last theatre company there was a couple a lot like you two, only he was a little less expressive than Tony."

"Gee, you don't say," Taylor said rolling her eyes as Tony danced back into the room with two wine glasses and some aspirin for Penny.

Sheldon chuckled and Penny ducked behind her hand trying to hide a giggle. "What'd I miss?" Tony asked as he handed Penny her glass back and dropped two aspirin into her outstretched hand before taking his seat next to her carefully so not to jostle the water on the floor or either of their glasses.

"Nothing, Sweet. Thank you for the refill, I don't know what I would do without you," Penny said leaning over to kiss him on the cheek.

Tony preened at the compliment and Sheldon chuckled again at their display, shaking his head slightly.

Taylor started the movie and they all settled in for a good scare. Joy Ride didn't disappoint and Penny found herself burrowing into Tony's side during some of the more bloody scenes. Once the movie ended, the boys had said their goodnights and were out the door.

Penny was sitting on Taylors' bed a short while later watching as she unpacked her goodies from the store and put things away in her dresser or the adjoining bathroom.

"I think someone was a little jealous tonight," Taylor said in a singsong voice as she carried a couple of items into her bathroom.

"What are you talking about?" Penny asked as she applied some antibiotic cream to the open blisters on her feet.

"Sheldon. He couldn't quit looking at you and Tony as he was cuddling you on the couch. I think that boy has a crush," Taylor said honestly.

"Shut up, really? You think he was jealous? I tried to make it clear that Tony is just my pretend boyfriend, you don't think Sheldon thinks there's anything there do you?" Penny asked, her brow furrowing at the thought of how to set that straight without looking too obvious.

"Penny, honey, no one is going to accidentally think Tony is straight, come on," Taylor said with a laugh. "I just think it's very possible that your co-star was wishing you were clinging to him during the scary parts of the movie."

Penny smiled at the thought. It had only been two days but there was undeniable chemistry between them and when you're putting together a show at a regional theatre where the only friends a lot of people have in the area are the other cast members relationships tend to develop at a more accelerated rate. Wether they're romantic relationships or friendships.

Sheldon was certainly someone Penny could see herself falling for and she was so excited to have the summer with him to explore that or at least make a really great friend. She went to bed that evening with thoughts of cuddling with Sheldon running through her head and though she couldn't remember her dreams the next morning she had a strong suspicion they were of a handsome blue eyed fellow.


	3. Chapter 3

AN: I had a heck of time getting this chapter to load so I'm hoping nothing is weird with the text or anything. I just wanted to take a minute to say thank you for those of you who have reviewed! This story is pretty outside the box and it's nice to know someone besides me is enjoying it! :P I love to hear constructive criticism and chat with folks reading my stories so please, feel free to leave a review, they make me happy ;)

BBT doesn't belong to me, all the disclaimers.

All original characters are my own though :)

Without further ado, enjoy!

* * *

The next day went much the same; rehearsal was a lot of dancing for Penny with a little scene work here and there with Sheldon. Sheldon spent the afternoon learning choreography for his big solo number and even though it wasn't technically dance, he lamented about how difficult it was to be a dancer when he came over for dinner later that evening. Penny and Taylor shared a look and an eye roll at his expense. Penny hoped his having dinner with them was a habit he would continue.

On Friday, mid morning Penny and Sheldon found themselves in the small rehearsal room alone with Sean and Corey from stage management. They were about to run the scene that had kept Penny's stomach in knots since the table read on Tuesday. Their kiss.

The scene was a relatively simple one, Penny's character is going on and on about her big plan to marry her boss and Sheldon's character is completely sick of hearing about it, mostly because he's just realized that he's in love with Millie. They get into yet another argument before Jimmy grabs Millie and kisses her and then Jimmy runs off, shocked by what he's just done as Millie launches into a song of confusion titled 'Jimmy'.

Things are going along quite well, that same chemistry mounting between them as their characters fight it out. The scenes ends with some good old fashion name calling.

"Skirt chaser," Penny says, spitting venom.

"Gold digger," Sheldon accuses, stepping closer and bringing them nearly nose to nose.

"Womanizer!" Penny nearly shouts in his face, balling her fists at her sides.

"Jezabel," Sheldon spits back in her face.

"Casanova!" Penny says, not backing down.

That's where the kiss is supposed to happen, Sheldon is supposed to run his hands through his hair in complete and total exasperation, grab her arms and pull her to him for a sizzling kiss. That is not what he does. He grabs her arms and pulls her close, bringing them nearly cheek to cheek, she can feel the warmth from his skin on her own but not touching and definitely not kissing. He holds her there for a beat before running off the mock stage.

Penny is frozen for a moment. He marked the kiss. It's highly unusual for actors to mark a kiss unless one of them is ill in rehearsals and they don't want to risk infection. Even then, it's not often done. Marking is for dancing, saving muscles in rehearsal when you've done the same complicated move too many times in a day. Or singing, to save your voice from too many vocal acrobatics in a short period of time. Marking is not done for kissing.

Penny stands there, unsure what to do, wondering what she did to make Sheldon not want to kiss her, was it her breath? Something stuck in her teeth? She's panicking silently in her head while Sean, on the other hand doesn't seem to mind the mark at all. He jumps up to talk about exits with Sheldon and praises them for their great chemistry, yet again.

Sean dismisses them for a break and before Sheldon leaves the room he winks at Penny and says, "That was amazing! Our best 'fight' yet, I'd say," with a wide smile.

Penny offers him a small smile back, still too flummoxed by the not-kiss that just happen to engage in chit chat. She hurries out of the room to find Taylor or Bernadette. As soon as she enters the hallway she sees Bernadette coming out of the opposite rehearsal room, Penny makes a beeline for her, "Are you busy?"

"No, Penny, what's up?" Bernadette asked, her brow furrowing at the look on Penny's face.

Penny grabs her friend by the hand and tugs her fingers lightly, pulling her through the congested hallway to the stairwell. Penny drags her to the landing one floor up for some privacy before stopping.

"Penny, what happened? Are you ok? You're kind of scaring me," Bernadette said.

"He marked the kiss!" Penny exclaimed.

Bernadette's mouth popped open in a surprised 'O', "He did what?" She hissed.

"Yeah, we were doing the scene it was going so perfectly and then all of a sudden, he grabs me like this," Penny grabs her friends arms, "And instead of kissing me," she pulls Bernadette in cheek to cheek to her.

"Is he sick?" Bernadette asked, pulling back to look at her friend with surprise evident on her face.

"I don't think so, he didn't say anything about being sick and then, get this, he didn't even act like it was a big deal. Him and Sean just went on talking about exits and blocking while I'm standing there like a rejected puppy," Penny says, burying her face in her hands.

There was a marked drop in noise from downstairs and Bernadette flashed Penny a sympathetic smile, "I'm sure everything's fine and there's a perfectly logical explanation as to why he didn't kiss you but it sounds like we're back," Bernadette said referring to the quiet settling over the third floor below them as everyone got back to rehearsal downstairs.

"Crap," Penny said as she descended the stairs, "I'm happy I'm dancing the rest of the day and I don't have any more scenes with him...how am I supposed to look at him ever again?"

Bernadette sighed inwardly. Sometimes actors were so dramatic.

* * *

Penny spent the rest of the morning putting finishing touches on the opening number along with the rest of the ensemble. Sheldon clearly had nothing else to do as he sat off to one side and watched the dancers work with thinly veiled fascination at how the number was coming together.

When it was time for lunch Penny grabbed Taylor and asked her to walk over to the park with her. She tried to convey with her eyes that they needed to discuss something important and she wasn't sure if Taylor understood that or was just being compliant but she grabbed her lunch and they were out the door in no time flat.

As they sat at a picnic table under some trees Penny told Taylor about the marked kiss and Taylor responded appropriately, with surprise. Penny knew it wasn't just her overreacting; marking a kiss was weird with a capital W.

"It doesn't make any sense," Taylor said chewing thoughtfully on a carrot stick, her eyebrows furrowed in concentration. "Marking a kiss is strange enough, but that boy likes you, I know he does and even if he didn't, which I am completely certain that he does, what would keep him from kissing you?"

"I don't know!" Penny wailed. She'd not been in too many shows where she played the romantic lead, she didn't have tons of personal experience with kissing onstage. But she'd been in enough productions and watched enough rehearsals to know that this was unusual. The fact that her crush on Sheldon was growing by the minute did not help her mood at all and by the time the rehearsal day was over, Penny was in a downright funk.

She was gathering her things in the kitchen and chatting with Tony, who she'd told about the kiss during one of their afternoon breaks and he knew how much it had thrown her and brought her confidence down a couple of notches so he was trying to cheer her up.

"Why don't you come out with us? Taylor is coming," he asked, inviting her to dinner for the tenth time that afternoon. But Penny just wasn't in the mood to go hang out with everyone. She knew that she needed to soon lest she'd start to look like she was stuck up, not wanting to socialize outside of rehearsals.

"I'll come out for karaoke tomorrow night but I'm just not feeling it tonight, babe," she said leaning her forehead against Tony's for a moment before giving him a quick peck and picking up her things to leave. Taylor was riding with the folks in one of the company cars out for dinner and maybe to see a movie then home later on so Penny would have the apartment to herself for the evening. It worked out perfectly as she planned to wallow with a bottle of wine and a carton of ice cream and run lines for act one, the piece together was coming up on Sunday and she wanted the script out of her hands for it. Which meant she needed to do some homework to feel comfortable.

She was just about to open the door to the stairwell when Sheldon placed a hand on her shoulder and stopped her, "Penny, is everything ok?" he asked.

"I'm fine, Sheldon, just feeling a little tired it's been a long week," she lied effortlessly and even offered him a small smile.

"Ok, well then I'm not sure how my request will be met but I was wondering if you'd like to join me for dinner tonight," he asked, leaning into her slightly.

"Thanks but I'm not really feeling the whole big-group-dinner-thing tonight," Penny said as she moved to walk past him.

"No, you misunderstand," he said, stopping her again, "I don't want to go out with the whole group either, I was thinking perhaps you and I could go out for Chinese, I hear there's a very good Chinese restaurant in town."

"Oh," Penny was unsure what to do with this. Yesterday, or even this morning before that failed kiss she would have happily agreed to dinner but now she felt weird. Although Sheldon didn't seem to be acting weird, in fact he seemed to be treating her the same as always.

Apparently Sheldon thought it was taking her too long to answer because he prompted her with a sly grin, "So what do you say, Kitten? Chinese food and then maybe we can run some lines? Get ready for the weekend?" he asked referring to the grueling rehearsal days coming up.

"Yeah, ok, that'd be great," Penny said, deciding that if he could act like nothing completely bizarre happen that morning then so could she. "I just need to go home and take a shower, change my clothes. How about 7?" she asked him.

"Perfect," Sheldon said with a smile, finally moving aside to let her access the stairwell.

"Did you need a ride home?" she asked him as walked past and onto the landing.

"No, one of the cars is going home, I'll be down at 7 sharp," he said with another heart stopping smile and a nod of his head.

Penny bounded down the stairs with a renewed energy, she was having dinner with Sheldon, sure it wasn't a date but still, she got to spend all evening with him and it would be just the two of them. She couldn't wipe the smile off her face as she drove home, took a quick shower, dried and styled her hair so that it fell in soft waves around her shoulders and applied some quick makeup.

She stood in front of her closet deciding what to wear as her phone rang, she picked it up and saw Tony's name on the display.

"Hello?" she said into the phone, walking back to her closet.

"You have a date!" he hissed.

"Can you please keep it down, no one said it's a date, least of all Sheldon and I don't want the rest of the cast hearing you!" she exclaimed.

"Baby, I stepped outside the moment Taylor told me, there's no one around. Now, what are you going to wear? We should've thought of this and planned an outfit before now," he said.

The two had a history of helping each other pick out clothes for opening parties, nights out on the town, dates...anything that came up over the summer that didn't require work out clothes or a costume they were each other's wing man.

"It's ok, I was thinking of the green dress I wore the first day," she said as her fingers moved over it in her closet.

"Too casual for a first date," he dismissed quickly.

"It's not a date, we're just friends, no, co-workers really, having dinner and running lines. It's practically a working dinner," Penny said.

"Give me a break," Tony scoffed.

The two bickered back and forth over clothes and wether this was a date or not for about five minutes before Penny decided on a handkerchief dress with a blue china pattern that she'd been planning to wear for soft opening the next week. She paired it with some tan gladiator sandals and touched up her lip gloss before snapping a photo in the mirror to send to Tony for his approval.

His reply came back promptly, "So hot you make me wish I liked girls."

Penny rolled her eyes and tucked her phone into her bag just as she heard,

Knock, knock, knock

"Penny."

Knock, knock, knock

"Penny."

Knock, knock, knock

"Penny."

She smiled and walked over to answer the door. She had a witty remark on the tip of her tongue but it was lost when she opened the door and saw the gorgeous man on the other side. Sheldon was wearing a tight black shirt under a black suit jacket paired with some dark washed blue jeans and his square toed black boots. He was holding a white daisy in his hand which he held out to her when she opened the door.

"Hey," she managed with a smile, taking the pro-offered flower.

"Good evening, darlin, you look amazing," Sheldon said as he brushed past her and entered the apartment.

Penny felt the now familiar flutter in her chest as she breathed in his light, fresh cologne when he stepped past her.

"I'm ready, just let me put this in a glass and grab my purse," she said motioning with the flower and moving past him again to grab a drinking glass from the kitchen. He put his hand on the small of her back as she passed and said quietly, "No hurry."

Her breath hitched for a split second at the quiet, husky tone in his voice. She found a glass, filled it with water and popped the flower into it. Placing the glass in the center of the table she grabbed her bag, "All ready," she said looking up at him with a smile.

As they walked to her car Penny asked, "Why didn't you want to go out with everyone tonight?"

"Why didn't you?" He countered with a quick smile but then answered her question, "I'm not usually much for a large crowd, having dinner with you and running lines seemed a much more appealing prospect."

Penny hmmd in response and then said, "I love going out with everyone but I wasn't feeling it tonight, honestly, I was going to spend a quiet night in my apartment until you invited me out."

"Why did you accept? If you wanted to stay home alone, that is," Sheldon asked.

Penny started the car, "I guess spending the evening with you seemed like a more appealing prospect," she said shooting him a flirtatious smile.

"Your check engine light is on," Sheldon told her as the car rumbled to life.

"I know, it's always on, it's fine," she said, throwing the car into gear and backing out of her spot.

"The light is there for a reason, Kitten," Sheldon said with a slight chuckle, shaking his head.

"To shine pretty orange light onto my steering column?" Penny asked with an overly innocent tone and a sideways look, a smile stretching her lips.

"I don't believe that's it," Sheldon replied.

"So, how are you liking Arcadia so far?" Penny asked.

"I haven't been able to see much besides the ACC and the grocery store. It's certainly a nice change from New York for a little while. I love that city but sometimes it gets stifling," Sheldon said.

"I've never been to New York, it's kind of my dream city," Penny said with a wistful tone in her voice. "Arcadia is a wonderful little town," she continued fondly. "I always try to organize some sight seeing type stuff for days off, I'm thinking a beach day for this Monday though, nothing too strenuous, everyone can have a good time."

"I've never been to a beach," Sheldon replied.

"Really? Never?" Penny asked.

"I grew up in Texas, we didn't take many trips. There was a lake but I hardly think the rocky shore there counts as a beach," he said.

"Ok, well we'll definitely go to the beach on Monday. We can pack food, play in the sand, swim and when the sun goes down we can have a bonfire and roast marshmallows," Penny said, quickly planning the day out in her head.

"That does sound like fun," Sheldon said smiling as Penny pulled into the parking lot of Arcadia's only sit down Chinese restaurant.

As they walked up to the door Penny could feel Sheldon's hand at the small of her back, gently guiding her into the restaurant and she felt those familiar butterflies coming back and fluttering around her heart. She was definitely crushing hard on this boy.

He stepped in front of her to open the door and gestured for her to go ahead of him, "Such manners," she said with a wink as she walked past.

"My mother raised a true southern gentleman, darlin," he drawled with a smile as he rested a hand more firmly on her back, caressing the side of her hip with his thumb ever so slightly.

Then the pressure was gone and he was talking to the hostess, asking for a table for two. He offered his hand to her when the hostess said 'Right this way' and Penny took it. The pressure of his hand in hers felt good, it felt right and she couldn't wipe the grin off her face as he gave her fingers a quick squeeze before releasing her hand to pull out her chair.

They had settled in and given the waitress their drink order before either of them spoke again.

"Did you grow up in the business?" Sheldon asked.

"I did, I grew up here in Arcadia in a way. I'm from Kansas and that's where my family still lives but I was cast in my first professional show here, at ART when I was 11. Ever since then I've acted as much as I could, every penny I made went back into my career in the form of dance classes and voice lessons and I've spent every summer since working at this theatre, learning from Sean," Penny answered. "How about you? When did you get bit by the bug?"

"I was a bit older, middle school. My class took a field trip to see a show in Houston and I couldn't get over the lights, the music, the excitement. As soon as I got to school the next day I signed up for my middle school play and the rest is, as they say, history," he said.

Just then the waitress came back to see if they'd decided what to order, they looked at one another sheepishly because they hadn't even opened their menus yet, Sheldon asked her for one more moment and they quickly scanned the menu and decided on their orders.

Once she had come and gone again Penny asked, "So, what do you do for fun? Besides theatre, of course."

"I collect comic books and action figures. I hate to say it, but I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to superheroes," he replied, looking down and then glancing up at her through his eyelashes.

"You're a comic book nerd?" Penny laughed, "I'm sorry, I just never would've guessed."

"That's enough of that," Sheldon said with a smirk, referring to her laughter at his expense. "Tell my your guilty pleasure."

Penny looked thoughtful for a moment, besides bad reality TV she didn't really have a true guilty pleasure but then it came to her, "I used to love junior rodeo."

"You liked going to to the rodeo?" Sheldon asked, hardly thinking that was an appropriate guilty pleasure.

"No, I was in the junior rodeo, for years," Penny said. "It was something I did with my dad, I started when I was about 6 and continued competing until I was 12. I probably would've kept going with it but I fell off my horse and twisted my knee practicing barrels. It was the last time I rode competitively, I was afraid I'd get hurt and not be able to dance anymore."

"Did you have a cowgirl hat?" Sheldon asked with a slight smirk.

"A big pink one," she responded.

"Did you wear a cowgirl shirt with sequins all over it?" He asked, his smile growing broader.

"You're making fun of me, but yes, I did. The more sparkly, the better," she said with a grin.

"Were you any good?" He asked.

"I was decent at barrels, my palomino Moonbeam, was a champ," she said.

Sheldon smiled at the picture she painted, a young Penny all decked out in glittery cowgirl wear atop a brown horse. He was sure it was adorable.

More than once during dinner Penny found herself forgetting to eat, her food growing cold as her and Sheldon talked nearly non stop about favorite colors, music, hobbies and shows they'd been in.

* * *

When they returned to the apartments hours later Sheldon asked, "Would you like to come up to my apartment to run lines? Or would you prefer to go to yours?"

"My script is in my apartment," Penny offered as they made their way up the walk from the parking lot.

"You're supposed to be memorized, you don't need your script," he teased her with a smile.

"We may need it for reference," she argued playfully.

"I have an eidetic memory, we can use that for reference," Sheldon said tapping the side of his head at his temple and leading the way up to his apartment.

"Eidetic memory? What's that?" Penny asked trying the strange word out.

"It's basically the same as having a photographic memory," he clarified for her as he unlocked the door to his place.

Penny walked in and noticed that their apartment was basically the same as hers and Taylor's except much neater, it didn't look like the table had been touched since the company manager had staged it to look homey and inviting the day before they arrived earlier in the week. The kitchen didn't look used at all either.

"You boys have kept this place clean," Penny remarked, "Taylor and I had ours torn apart the first night."

Sheldon chuckled, "I'm sure you did. Ethan and I aren't much for cooking," he said referring to his roommate. Instead of housing him with a dancer, he had been roomed with one of their older principal actors, a sweet man in his early 40's.

"I see that," Penny said as she perched on a barstool and watched Sheldon carefully as he pulled out two glasses and filled them with ice water.

"Would you like to practice on the balcony? It's a lovely night," he said.

Penny agreed, it was a gorgeous night with just a hint of a chill in the air but it was warm enough to be out without a jacket a sure sign that summer was fast approaching.

She opened the sliding glass door and stepped outside, leaving room for Sheldon to follow her. Once he was outside she slid the door shut and took in the faint scenery she could make out through the darkness. When the sun was shining they had a great view of a wide open meadow, on the other side was the beginning of one of the nature preserves in Arcadia. It was stunning when the sun was just coming up and there was fog on the meadow.

Penny took a deep breath and could swear she smelled the sea. Of course, as soon as she got to Arcadia she could swear she smelled the salty ocean air from anywhere in town. Locals said that wasn't true but Penny was convinced of it. The ocean was only a 5 minute car ride away after all.

"Do you smell that?" She asked turning to look at Sheldon in the dim light.

"The ocean? Yes," he answered with a smile. "I'm looking forward to the outing on Monday."

"Me too," Penny said taking a seat at the small iron table situated in one corner of the balcony. It wasn't a large space, big enough to accommodate about ten adults Penny and Taylor's balcony didn't come with a table and chairs and Penny was contemplating investing in a set so they could have morning coffee there when Sheldon broke into her thoughts.

"Shall we get started then?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'm ready whenever you are," Penny said shaking her head slightly and trying to get into 'work' mode.

"First line is yours, darlin," Sheldon drawled with a smile.

"Of course," Penny said and launched into her opening bit, it wasn't long before the two had stood from the table and were using the small balcony as a stage, doing their blocking and mocking entrances and exits this way or that.

They finished the opening scene and Penny dropped character looking at Sheldon with a smile, "That was really good!" She exclaimed feeling pretty good about being able to make it all the way through, hitting all the emotions and getting all the lines letter perfect.

Sheldon nodded, "Yes, it went very well." Then he launched into Dorothy's lines, effectively skipping a few pages of the script that contained dialogue belonging to neither of them and going to Penny's next scene.

"I-" Penny started to question him and then decided to go with it, see how much of the script he really knew.

Turns out, he really did know the whole thing, the first act anyway. He mentally skipped through the script, running all his own lines and doing the scenes with her that she had with other people.

Penny was a little bit surprised when he went into their final scene of act one; the kissing scene. They were going through the lines, things were going well. They got to the name calling part of the script and things were getting heated between them. Penny's mind was racing with about a million things as she slung insults at him. Why had he gone into this scene when it had ended so badly earlier, the evening had been so perfect she'd nearly forgotten about the horror show that was this mornings rehearsal.

But as they got closer to one another with each insult all her insecurities from the morning were surfacing again. They were nearly toe to toe on the dark balcony as she spit, "Casanova!"

Then he reached out ever so slightly putting one hand on the small of her back and cupping the back of her head with the other he pulled her to him and before she had a moment to delight in the feeling of his firm chest pressed into her soft one his lips were on hers.

This kiss was unlike anything Penny had ever experienced before. Certainly unlike any stage kiss she'd ever had in the past. He was holding her gently but firmly to his body, his fingers wound in her hair as his mouth ever so tenderly claimed hers. He sucked her bottom lip between his own and brushed it with his tongue. Penny was sure she moaned just a little as she wrapped both her arms around his neck and pressed herself impossibly closer, opening her mouth to him. She was rewarded with his tongue gliding into her mouth, teasing her and then caressing while his hand rubbed small circles on her back and his fingers tightened in her hair.

When he pulled back she could just see in the dim light streaming through from the living room that his pupils were dilated and his lips swollen. Both of them were breathing heavy as they stood there still in each other's arms gazing at one another for a moment before Penny said with a wry smile, "I'm not sure we can do that onstage in front of the blue haired crowd."

Sheldon laughed out loud, a genuine belly laugh as he hugged her to him then pulled back slightly. He tucked a strand of her soft blonde hair behind her ear.

"I couldn't kiss you for the first time in front of people," he said with a slight shrug. "I got to that part in the script this morning, grabbed you with every intention of kissing you and then realized how wrong it seemed for out first kiss to be a show for others to see," he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

Penny felt her heart swelling as he spoke. That was one of the most romantic things anyone had ever said to her and she was left a bit speechless, unsure how to proceed but she found herself nodding as he finished, as much as she'd been wanting to kiss him all week, since the minute she saw him if she was being honest with herself, it didn't seem right to have it be in front of people. Not after what she'd just experienced.

"Could you say something here, Kitten?" Sheldon asked, studying her face.

"I agree, I was so freaked out this morning when you didn't kiss me. I spent most of the day trying to figure out if I'd done something to make you made or what..." her voice trailed off for a minute. "I was half afraid you hated me or something but no, I agree, having our first kiss with an audience doesn't seem right."

He caught her dainty hand in his and brought her knuckles to his lips, kissing them softly, "I would never want you to feel that way. I'm sorry I made you feel insecure, Penny," he murmured against her skin.

"It's ok," she said, watching his lips move against her hand, how could that feel so good and be so, so hot?

"I should be going," she said knowing it was getting late and they had a big day of rehearsal ahead of them tomorrow.

"Let me walk you out," Sheldon said, taking her hand and twining their fingers together. He led her the short way to the front door and opened it for her then turned and smiled down at her.

He leaned down until his mouth was right next to her ear, "Sleep well, kitten," he said, his voice soft, she could feel the puff of air from his lips on her ear and it made her arms break out in goose bumps.

"You too, Cooper," she said, matching his silky tone.

When she turned to leave, a huge grin spread over her lips as she hurried to the stairs that would take her down to her own apartment.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN:** Thank you guys so much for your favorites, follows and reviews. They really do mean a lot to me and every time I get a notification about this story it makes me smile. So thank you so much for that :D

Also, I just wanted to say that this story is taking place in 2016 even though in 'real world Big Bang land' everyone is in their 30's, since this is AU anyway I didn't want to have to go back to 2007 and try to remember what technology/websites/songs were relevant. So just to make it easier on myself I set it present day.

And lastly, what are you guys thinking of Sheldon? He's obviously OOC but I'm trying to make it obvious that this man has the potential to be cannon Sheldon, my Sheldon is just more 'normal' if that makes sense. Anyway, what are you all thinking of him?

* * *

Again thanks for reading and taking the time to review/favorite/follow, you're all awesome 3

Penny unlocked her apartment door and found Taylor, Chris and Tony all sitting in the living room waiting for her.

"Hey guys," she greeted them with a smile. They were all looking at her expectantly.

"So, how'd it go?" Taylor asked.

"You still look hot," Tony said with a wink, "Great choice."

Penny said laid her purse on the counter and perched on the arm of the chair Tony was sitting in, opposite her 'entourage'. He tilted his face up for a quick kiss which Penny dropped onto his lips lightly as she said, "It went just fine."

"Come on, details girl, we've been waiting all night," Chris said with a pout.

"It was good, we had a good meal, good conversation and the best part of the night, I got through every single one of my act one lines without hardly any flubs so I'm ready to rock this piece through on Sunday!" Penny said with a grin.

Taylor rolled her eyes, "They're just a couple of giant theatre nerds, guys, nothing exciting happen," she got up from the couch and went to the kitchen for some water.

Tony studied Penny intently for a moment before getting up and saying, "Come on Chris, let's get back to our apartment, it's getting late."

The boys were on their way out the door, Penny walking them out and Tony turned around, hugged her tightly and whispered in her ear, "He kissed you," matter-of-factly.

Penny pulled back to look at him in surprise, how did he know? He just smiled and kissed her quickly before leaving the apartment, closing the door in his wake.

Penny shook her head and grabbed her purse, "I'm going to bed, Tay," she called as she walked past the kitchen.

"Night girl!" Taylor called back, she was turning lights off in the kitchen and living room and looked like she was on her way to bed as well.

Penny closed her bedroom door behind her and quickly got ready for bed, changing her clothes and taking her makeup off in her on-suite bathroom before climbing into bed with her phone.

She was checking her social media when her text tone went off, she saw Sheldon's name pop up on her screen and grinned as she opened the text. It was the selfie she'd asked him to take of them in front of the restaurant, he was standing behind her, one long arm extended over her shoulder to take the picture and though she couldn't quite see it, she knew the other hand was on her waist as she was nestled with her back up against his chest, tipping her head back and smiling brightly for the camera.

The picture made her heart swell, they looked like a happy couple and maybe that was what they were on their way to becoming. She saw that he'd sent her a text along with the photo.

 _I had a wonderful time tonight, Kitten. Sleep tight, I'll see you in the morning._

Penny smiled at his sweet message and tapped out a reply.

 _I did too, Coop. Can't wait to do some more scene work with you._

She sent the message off and only had to wait a few seconds for a response.

 _;)_

She sent back a flirty _:*_ and quickly pulled up her Facebook to share the photo with the caption ' _Dinner tonight at an old favorite restaurant with a great new friend_ '.

Then she turned her phone off and placed it on the nightstand. As she lay waiting for sleep to claim her she replayed the kiss over and over in her head and still had a smile on her face as she drifted off to sleep.

* * *

The next morning came quickly and Penny couldn't wait to get to rehearsal and see Sheldon. She was excited to see how their dynamic would be both onstage and off after that toe curling kiss the night before. She showered and got ready quickly, not spending a lot of time on her hair or makeup, applying only a bit of mascara and some lip gloss.

She dressed quickly as well, she pulled on a pair of tights and slipped into a pair of black dance shorts that had a skirt attached, both were very short and comfortable to dance in, she finished her outfit off with a light purple tank top.

Penny hurried out of her bedroom, double checking her dance bag as always to make sure she had any shoes she might need for the day, extra clothes including a jacket if she needed it and her water bottle. She knocked on Taylor's door as she walked past it, "Let's go, lady! This bus is out of here in 5 minutes," Penny yelled as she ransacked the kitchen for snack and lunch food.

"Yeah, yeah," Taylor grumbled, opening her door and walking out to the living room, gathering things as she went; a jacket that was draped over the chair at the table, shoes that were under the coffee table, her script from off the kitchen counter.

"Starbucks?" Penny asked, already knowing the answer.

"Please," Taylor responded, hurrying to the door still stuffing her script in her bag as she went.

The girls arrived at rehearsal about 5 minutes early which cut into Penny's stretching time but it was a sacrifice she'd been willing to make to ensure her and Taylor had caffeine for the morning.

They walked upstairs together and split when they reached their floor, Taylor going into the kitchen and Penny directly into the big rehearsal room. She weaved her way through the other cast members cheerfully saying to hello to people as she passed them, keeping an eye out for Sheldon, on her way to the stage management table to greet them.

Bernadette looked up at her when she said hello and raised her eyebrows, "I heard someone had a date last night," she whispered quietly.

"Oh yeah? Who?" Penny whispered back with a cheeky grin.

"Don't play dumb with me, missy," Bernadette hissed back.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Penny said as she heard Stephanie walk into the room and save her by greeting everyone with a loud 'Good morning ladies and gentlemen' thus starting rehearsal.

Sheldon came in from the kitchen and Penny saw him scan the room, when his eyes landed on her from the doorway across the room he smiled and walked over to her as Stephanie started running through their schedule for the day.

"Good morning," he whispered, bringing his mouth so close to her ear she could feel the heat from his skin on her cheek. Then he casually draped an arm around her shoulders and turned his attention to Stephanie and Sean at the front of the room.

After a minute or so he began stroking her bare shoulder with his thumb and Penny couldn't concentrate on anything but the tingles his fingers were leaving in their wake as they faintly danced across her bare skin. She leaned into him ever so slightly as she tried to pay attention to the schedule for the day.

As it turned out they were ahead of schedule and Sean wanted to start a partial piece together today with the hopes of being able to run straight through act one the next afternoon. Becca was quick to interject that she wanted any extra time to clean up the opening dance and hopefully start teaching the tap for act two. Sean agreed easily and they were off.

The morning flew by in a blur, the opening number once again taking up most of the morning block of time. Stage management was running around trying to move large prop furniture here and there to simulate the set changes while Stephanie called out curtain drops and lighting changes from her seat at the stage management table.

Lunch couldn't come soon enough for anyone. Even though they were only doing the piece together one day sooner, the fact that it was kind of a surprise meant no one was really prepared to jump into such an intense day which seemed to make everything a little more stressful.

Penny had just flopped down in a chair in the kitchen when Sheldon came in and took a seat across from her, opening his own lunch box.

"Hey Coop, staying in for lunch today?" she asked, rhetorically.

"No, I just thought I'd eat this snack before I go out and get myself some lunch," he quipped, gesturing to his sandwich and salad laid out on the table.

"Don't get smart with me, Cooper, my brain is just about fried from this surprise piece together," Penny said pointing her fork at him in what she hoped was a menacing way.

"Seeing as how I am technically a genius it's hard for me not to 'get smart', Darlin," he drawled with a smirk.

Penny rolled her eyes at him in a very exaggerated manner before stabbing another forkful of her own salad.

"So, how do you think it's going?" she asked.

"The opening number looks amazing," Sheldon said, honestly. "I can't believe you all just learned it less than a week ago."

"It's what we barbarian dancers do," Penny said with a wink. "That number is a beast but it's so fun. I'm just worried about the 27 second quick change I have in the middle of it," Penny said referencing a costume change that is notorious for being a bear to pull off.

Penny's character opens the show looking every bit a country bumpkin, with long curly hair half way down her back and a straw hat atop her head. Wearing a gingham print dress with white gloves and the whole bit. In the middle of the opening number she whisks offstage to have her big 'New York make-over' while the ensemble stays onstage dancing. In 27 seconds she has to be back onstage with a short bob hair style, in a completely different outfit with different shoes to boot.

Usually one costume or the other suffers to make the change easier but Penny had seen both costumes at her fitting the weekend before, the costume shop hadn't cut any corners on either one. She was nervous about getting the change done correctly.

"I enjoy quick changes," Sheldon said.

"Easy for you to say, you don't have any!" Penny said with a laugh.

"I just mean that I enjoy the thought and creativity that goes into making them work," he replied.

"Yeah," Penny said, "Sometimes I don't know how the crew does what they do, it's like they have magic wands."

Stephanie walked in and heard Penny's last comment so she added, "We do not have magic wands but we do like for everyone to think we do." She dropped a kiss to the top of Penny's head as she passed the girl on her way to start a new pot of coffee.

Penny and Sheldon continued to chat, talking about the group outing to Hot Tamales that evening. Hot Tamales was a Mexican restaurant with amazing and cheap food that turned into a karaoke bar at night. It was one of Penny's favorite places to go after a show or long rehearsal day. She loved getting on their tiny makeshift stage and making a fool out of herself with Bernie, Taylor and especially Tony.

They also chatted more about the beach trip coming up in a few days. Penny found herself getting lost in Sheldon's blue eyes as he talked and she couldn't believe how easy he was to chat with. Definitely not something she'd had in her last relationship. She stopped herself short and reminded herself that this wasn't a relationship...at least not yet, she thought as she remembered that kiss from the night before with a smile.

Just then Sean came rushing into the kitchen looking around and smiled when he saw Penny and Sheldon sitting there.

"There you kids are," he said hurrying over and sitting next to Penny.

"I just got off the phone with KMSJ and they want to have us on their show in the morning," he said referencing the local radio station.

"Ooh, fun," Penny said with a smile.

"It'll be a nice free publicity spot," Sean agreed. "Actually, while I have you both here, do you mind if we go over the press coverage for next week?"

He asked opening up the folder he had carried in with him and pulled out some papers. Quickly Sean outlined the interviews and photo shoots that would be coming up in the next week, starting with publicity photos before rehearsal on the following Tuesday and ending with a camera crew coming in to film a little bit of rehearsal on Friday afternoon.

Penny was pretty excited, it was the first time in years that she'd been included in the press stuff. For the kids shows there wasn't as much money put into advertising and not as much media attention but for the main stage shows there was always quite a bit of local press which was fun.

When Sean had finished running down the press schedule he was standing to leave and Penny stopped him, "Hot Tamales tonight?"

"You kids are starting that already?" Sean asked with a smile, "I swear it gets earlier and earlier every year."

"Yep, we have to corner the market on Saturday night karaoke!" Penny said, "Come out with us, it'll be fun."

"I'll ask Mark," Sean said noncommittally.

"Want me to text him?" Penny asked pulling out her phone.

Sean sighed and rolled his eyes, "We'll be there."

"Yay!" Penny said with a wide smile, "I've barely seen Mark."

"Yes, he only mentions it every other minute every night," Sean said with a chuckle as he left the room.

"Sounds like we're going to be busy next week," Sheldon commented when Sean left the kitchen.

"Yeah, but press is fun, especially the publicity photos. I love getting into costume for the first time," Penny said with a smile.

After a few more minutes of discussing upcoming press and making plans to drive together the following morning to Sean's house to meet up with him to drive to the radio show their conversation turned to plans for the evening.

"So, are you going out to karaoke tonight?" Penny asked propping her tired feet up into the chair across from her.

"For a little while," Sheldon said, dropping his hand to her ankle which was now resting in the seat next to him, "I don't want to be out too late, tomorrow is another big day," he said referring to the official piece together that was going to take place the following day.

"Me either, I need my sleep if I want to be at all useful at the radio show. I can give you a ride home if we're ready to leave before the whole group," Penny offered.

"In your death trap of a car with it's check engine light on?" Sheldon asked, raising his eyebrows at her.

"The very one. It's perfectly fine, I drove all the way here from Kansas with that silly light on and nothing happen," Penny said, shrugging.

"I'm sorry, you did what?" Sheldon exclaimed.

Penny shrugged and grinned in response, "It's fine Sheldon."

"I'd feel much better about you driving it around if you at least got it checked out. I'm sure Sean would agree with me," Sheldon said, fixing Penny with a gaze.

"Ok, when I have time I'll get it checked out," Penny agreed.

When there were only about 20 minutes of lunch break remaining Penny and Sheldon moved back into the rehearsal space for her to stretch. Soon Taylor and Tony joined them on the rehearsal room floor, everyone chatting about the first karaoke adventure of the season.

Stephanie came in and announced that over lunch some changes to the day's schedule had been discussed and everyone perked up to listen. Becca had convinced Sean that she needed the afternoon to start teaching the big tap number that opens act two and after some discussion he had agreed.

Penny silently thanked Sean for beating it into her head from a young age to always come prepared as she pulled her tap shoes out of her bag. Soon there were tapping sounds coming from all over the room and Sheldon was hurrying out saying he couldn't stand to listen to dancers tap a million different rhythms all at once. Which is what usually happens when you have a large group of dancers put on tap shoes. No one can keep their feet quiet.

The afternoon flew by in a frenzy of taps and sweat for Penny. Tap was her favorite kind of dance to do, she had so much fun learning the new steps and sounds and hearing a tap number come together.

Penny and most of the rest of the cast was gathered in the kitchen talking about the tap number and deciding who was riding in which vehicles to go back to the apartments. Penny had already agreed to take Chris and Tony home when Sheldon came over and asked for a ride as well.

"Sure," Penny said with a smile, "Taylor can squeeze in the backseat with the boys," she said glancing in Taylor's direction.

"No prob, but let's get going!" Taylor said. "We need to get home and start getting ready!"

Everyone hustled down to the car, Penny and Sheldon falling behind a few steps. Penny could feel his hand resting at the small of her back as they walked, even though she was sweaty and usually didn't like to be touched after a rigorous dance workout she enjoyed the feel of his hand there.

"Are you still good to give me a ride home tonight, Darlin?" Sheldon asked her.

"I am, I'm only going to stay a couple of hours, long enough to eat something and sing a few songs. Wait, that's the price of your ride home, you have to sing a song with me!" Penny said with a wide grin.

"Seems a very small price to pay," Sheldon said as they reached the car, he had walked with Penny to the drivers door and opened it for her, offering to take her bag and deposit it in the trunk.

"What a great guy," Taylor said, elbowing Chris in the ribs and shoving her bag at him before clambering into the center spot in the backseat.

Tony was climbing in on the passenger side next to Taylor and he overheard her so he responded, "It wasn't her gay boyfriend being chivalrous, it was her straight one."

"Shut up!" Penny hissed at Tony as Sheldon dropped lightly into the passenger seat.

"He's not my gay boyfriend," Taylor protested, "He's my bi-boyfriend."

"Same thing," Tony said with an eye roll in her general direction.

"What are you two fighting about now?" Chris asked as he climbed in the backseat with Tony and Taylor.

"Nothing," the two chorused in unison and Penny chuckled at them.

"Has Penny told you that we're going to the beach on Monday?" Sheldon asked the trio in the backseat.

"A beach day already? Alright, I can get down with that," Tony said.

"Yeah, today was so hectic I kind of forgot to tell everyone, remind me tonight," Penny asked, touching Sheldon lightly on his forearm.

He favored her with a smile, "Of course, Kitten."

Once they got home everyone split off to their respective apartments to get ready for the evening. Penny and Taylor each took a quick shower and then settled in Penny's room to fix their hair, do their makeup and listen to music.

"Penny," Taylor said, turning the music down a bit, "Will you please tell me what happen with Sheldon last night?"

Penny rolled her eyes at her friend, it was probably the tenth time she'd asked that day.

"Ok, I'll tell you but now it's probably going to seem pretty anticlimactic. He kissed me," Taylor gasped and clapped, her eyes going wide with excitement. Penny held up her hand to halt the celebration.

"It was during our kissing scene. We came back to his place to run lines together and when we got to that part of the script he planted one on me."

"Did it feel like a stage kiss?" Taylor asked and Penny couldn't hide the smile creeping slowly over her face.

"Not really, it was a good kiss. Like, a really good kiss. But I've never kissed him before so maybe that's just how his stage kisses are, I'll have to wait and see how it goes in rehearsal tomorrow," Penny said with a twinkle in her eye, already looking very much forward to the next time she got to kiss Sheldon.

A short while later the girls were both dressed in cute but casual sun dresses, Penny had raided Taylor's closet for something to wear. The two were basically the same size, Taylor was about an inch taller but otherwise, they could easily share clothes. Penny was happy to have a roommate with a closet full of new dress options.

The boys came to the door and Sheldon knocked his usual knock.

 _Knock, knock, knock_

"Penny and Taylor."

 _Knock, knock, knock_

"Penny and Taylor."

 _Knock, knock, knock_

"Penny and Taylor."

Penny rushed over to open the door for them, as she did she heard Chris asking, "Why do you knock like that, dude?"

Sheldon considered him for all of one second before shrugging and responding nonchalantly, "OCD."

"Good evening, Kitten, you look amazing tonight," Sheldon said, stepping into the apartment and ghosting a kiss across Penny's cheek. She was sure her face was on fire as Tony came in behind him waggling his eyebrows wildly before kissing her quickly.

Penny and Chris shared a quick kiss on the cheek before he moved into the room and wrapped his arms around Taylor, kissing her soundly.

Penny looked at Tony with puppy dog eyes and said, "How come you never kiss me like that?"

"Because I am gay, my love," he said, reaching out to caress her cheek softly while leaning in to give her an eskimo kiss, nose-to-nose.

Sheldon draped his arm around Penny's shoulders lazily before asking, "Are we ready to leave or at they going to need a minute?" He jerked a thumb in Taylor and Chris' direction.

Penny rolled her eyes at them, it always seemed to work out the same, as far as anyone could tell Chris was gay but he seemed to be Taylor-sexual as well. The two were always paired together for dance numbers because of their height and every summer, without fail, they fell into a friends with benefits relationship of epic proportions.

"C'mon you two, before I get the hose," Penny said clapping her hands at them as she walked over to get her purse off the counter.

"You don't have a hose," Chris said grinning over Taylors shoulder.

Penny shot him a playful dirty look and they disentangled themselves and everyone headed out the door.

The ride to Hot Tamale was rowdy, Penny played loud music and everyone in the car was signing along except Sheldon who was a bit more reserved but was smiling at everyone else's antics. Except when he was admonishing Penny to keep her eyes on the road, hands on the wheel and to be careful.

When they got to the restaurant and walked in they saw that the Millie cast and crew had pretty much taken over the entire bar area which was dotted throughout with high top tables that they had pulled together and moved around to form one super long table around which everyone was gathered.

Penny and Sheldon found themselves sitting by some of the ensemble members, folks who were new to the company this season and Penny was glad to get to know them better as they ordered food and ate.

When the food had been cleared out of the way and everyone was ordering drinks Penny hopped down from her barstool to mingle with the other people at the table. She went over to Sean and Mark where they were sitting at one far end of the long table and was greeted with a bone crushing hug from Mark.

"Babydoll, I never see you anymore, I miss having you in our guest house," he pouted as he squeezed her close.

"I know, I miss you too but it was time for me to grow up and move out on my own, dad," Penny said playfully, kissing the man on his cheek.

"But you're our little girl," he said playing along and shooting puppy dog eyes at his husband.

Sean reached over and took his hand, "Not anymore, sweetheart, our baby is all grown up."

"You have to come for Sunday dinner though, say you will," Mark said with a hopeful look at Penny.

"Of course I will," Penny said feeling a little misty eyed. Sunday dinner was something Mark and her mom had come up with years and years ago, Penny's mom would cook a home cooked meal for them whether they were in rehearsal or doing shows and they would all sit down together like a family and eat, play games after dinner, talk. Sunday dinner was some of Penny's fondest memories of growing up at ART and growing up with these two men.

Mark kissed her on the cheek as she moved on down the table to where the crew was gathered. She spent a few minutes mingling with them and meeting a couple of the new crew members. It was another half hour before she'd made her way to the bar, gotten a drink and was taking her seat back by Sheldon. People were starting to sign up to sing and Taylor and Chris were taking the stage to sing 'I Knew You Were Waiting For Me'.

"So, are you still going to sing with me?" She asked Sheldon, batting her eyelashes in a very exaggerated manner.

"Only if you promise to stop doing that," he said with a laugh.

"Done," Penny agreed, grabbing a karaoke song book that was laying unattended on the table near them.

She didn't really have to look at the book anymore, she'd been doing this once a week, every summer for the past six years. Besides she already knew what song she wanted to do with Sheldon. She grabbed a slip of paper out of the back of the binder and neatly wrote their names and the name of the song on it to take to the DJ running the karaoke.

Sheldon took the book from her and flipped through it as he leaned back and draped his arm over the back of her chair, "What did you just sign me up for, Kitten?" He asked gesturing to the paper she had placed to the side.

Penny grinned at him, "Suddenly Seymour from Little Shop," she replied. It was one of her favorite songs from a musical, Little Shop was one of her dream shows and Audrey one of her all time dream roles. ART had done Little Shop during Penny's second summer there, she was in for the kids show that ran during the same time slot as Little Shop and she'd fallen in love with it.

Now that she was getting old enough to actually play Audrey she'd been bugging Sean and Mark to do the show for the past couple of years.

"One of my favorite silly musicals," Sheldon said with a nod, seeming to approve of her choice.

Penny bounced up out of her chair to go hand her first song to the DJ and then hurried back to look through the book and pick out a couple of more songs to sing.

They listened to Tony and Bernadette do a questionable rendition of 'Lean On Me' and the crew guys got up a bit drunkenly sang 'Bohemian Rhapsody' before the DJ called Penny and Sheldon to the stage.

Sheldon stood up and offered his hand to Penny who happily took it, he tucked her hand through his arm and they walked up to the small stage together, arm in arm. Penny took the mic the DJ offered and smiled out at the small crowd, mostly consisting of her fellow ART employees.

"Sean, Mark?" Penny called, "This is for you," she said giving them a meaningful look.

As the opening chords came through the speakers Penny could feel the two men rolling their eyes at her but she just grinned out at them.

Her and Sheldon pretty much killed the number, it seemed the two had just much onstage chemistry 'playing' Audrey and Seymour as they did playing Millie and Jimmy. Penny hoped then and there that she was able to work with this man for a long, long time. She couldn't squash the feeling that performing with him just felt so right.

By the end of the song even Mark and Sean were on their feet cheering along with Tony, Taylor and a few of their other co-workers. Most of the other people in the bar weren't as happy to listen to Broadway show tunes being belted out even if they were being done rather well.

Sheldon offered Penny his hand again to help her down the steps at the front of the stage and this time he kept hold of her hand as they walked back to their table. When they sat down Taylor came over to chat with Penny.

"Do you think you're going to be able to convince them to do Little Shop someday?" She asked Penny.

"I don't know, I think they do whatever they want but I'm trying," Penny said as she caught Marks eye down the table and winked at him, blowing a kiss.

He rolled his eyes slightly at her but still 'caught' her kiss and brought it to his cheek, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

"I signed us up for a 'Holding Out For A Hero' and I think Tony wants to do 'I'll Never Fall in Love Again' with you, just so you know," Taylor said before turning to head back to her own seat.

"Tony!" Penny yelled down the table to her 'boyfriend' to get his attention and then once he looked up at her, "I'd love to sing with you, pick something out!"

He flashed her a thumbs up and reached for a karaoke book sitting nearby.

"Chris just told me they signed up the whole company to do 'La Vie Boheme' from Rent," Sheldon said, his mouth very near her ear.

"I love Rent!" Penny gushed, "I should've picked a song from it."

"I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities this summer," Sheldon said with a chuckle.

"Hey, we were good on Suddenly Seymour," Penny said leaning into Sheldon slightly so that his arm which was draped around her chair almost felt like it was around her instead.

"We're good together period, Darlin," Sheldon drawled back at her with a flirtatious smile.

Penny felt herself blushing as she heard her name called to come back up onstage to sing with Taylor. The beauty of doing karaoke was that you didn't have to worry about singing well. Penny loved cutting loose, having fun and bouncing around onstage especially with her girlfriends or Tony and not having to worry if she was going to run out of breath to sing properly.

Her and Taylor made fools of themselves, forgetting the words at one point and dissolving into a fit of giggles in the middle of the song but it was such a good time Penny didn't even care.

When she plopped back into her seat next to Sheldon he was chuckling at her slightly, "That looked like a lot of fun."

"It was a flawless performance, if I do say so myself," Penny said laughing.

"Are you going up again?" Penny asked Sheldon as she took a sip of her second margarita.

"I don't think so, I'll leave that to the professionals. I'll sing with the group though," he said, placing his arm around her and stroking her exposed shoulder with his thumb very lightly.

Penny's head got suddenly swimmy and she wasn't sure if it was the touch of Sheldon's flesh on her own or the drink in her hand.

"As soon as I finish the song with Tony we can go," Penny said looking at her watch and realizing she had intended to be gone by 10 and it was nearly 10 already.

"No rush, Kitten, you have fun," Sheldon said with a smile.

Penny heard her name being called once again and Tony was rushing over to collect her, he laced his fingers through and led her up to the stage. The two did an incredibly dramatic rendition of 'Never Fall In Love Again'. Ending with Tony on his knees at her feet and Penny giggling at his over the top antics.

When they finished Tony called the rest of the ART employees up on stage to do 'La Vie Boheme' and after nearly 8 minutes of rapid fire lyrics they were all heading back to their seats, breathless and laughing.

"We can go," Penny said to Sheldon, leaning down to grab her purse off the back of her chair.

"If you're ready," Sheldon agreed.

She led the way, saying goodbye to folks along the way and double, then triple checking that Taylor had a ride home before leaving her. As they walked Penny could feel Sheldon's hand at the small of her back and it thrilled her to know that he was right behind her, touching her casually.

When they stepped out into the cool night air, Penny began to rummage through her bag for her keys and nearly stepped off the curb without looking, Sheldon caught her and they ended up chest to chest again with him holding her steady.

"You have to stop falling for me, Kitten," he joked with a twinkle in his eye.

"You like it, besides, with those blue eyes, I can't help it," Penny said with a cheeky grin, she was in no hurry to pull out of his arms but he released her and then slid his arm around her shoulders and they continued walking. As soon as she had the keys out of her purse Sheldon reached out, "Do you mind?" He asked reaching for the keys.

Penny handed them over absentmindedly, everyone and their brother drove her car so she didn't mind at all but she must have given him a questioning look because he continued, "You had two margaritas with dinner, I had none. I'd like to keep you safe," he said with a warm smile.

He walked her around to the passenger side of the car and opened the door for her, waiting for her to slide in so he could close it behind her.

He climbed in and checked all the mirrors twice before turning the key, the engine rumbling to life, he shook his head mumbling about her check engine light.

"You're cute when you fret," Penny said with a slightly tipsy smile on her face. She was no where near drunk but she was feeling a little tipsy and wasn't upset that she didn't have to drive herself home. The tequila had also loosened her tongue a bit because as soon as it left her mouth she couldn't believe she'd told Sheldon he was cute.

He looked over at her with a wide smile and then quietly said, "You're beautiful, always."

Penny could feel her cheeks flaming at the compliment as she smiled at him for a moment before facing forward again.

"Tonight was a lot of fun," Sheldon continued.

"I love karaoke nights," Penny said, grateful for a normal topic to discuss, "It's one of the few times when the crew comes out with us, like the whole crew, not just stage management. So it's a lot of fun."

"How are you feeling about the interview in the morning?" Sheldon asked as he navigated carefully through the almost deserted streets of Arcadia.

"A little nervous, to be honest. It's been a while since I've done any press. I'm always better with the photo shoots or when they come in to film rehearsal. I'm not such a huge fan of talking about shows or myself," Penny said.

"I'll be with you, it'll be fine," Sheldon said in a reassuring tone as he brought his free hand over to rest on Penny's leg instead of the gear shift.

They rode in silence for a bit, his fingers lightly caressing the skin just above her knee and Penny trying to decide if she reach down and hold his hand.

In the end she decided to go for it, they'd held hands before but somehow, doing it here in the intimacy of her small car it seemed more real than when he was holding her hand to lead her through a restaurant or something.

She let her hand rest lightly on the back of his and he flipped his hand over to hold hers, both their hands now resting on her leg.

"How do you think the piece together is going to go tomorrow?" Penny asked, stroking his hand with her thumb.

"I think it's going to be great," he said smiling over at her and giving her hand a little squeeze.

All too soon they were back at the apartments and leaving their cocoon of intimacy behind. Sheldon walked her to her door, holding her hand the whole way there. When they reached her door he handed her keys back to her gently, letting his fingers linger on hers while she took them back.

"Tonight was fun," Penny said, looking up into Sheldon's eyes.

He just gazed down at her and nodded before tucking a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear.

"Sleep well, Kitten," he said, letting his hand remain lightly on her neck.

Penny almost couldn't breathe in anticipation of what he was going to do. She looked up at him again and begged him with her eyes, 'Kiss me'.

It was like he heard her thoughts because as soon as she formed the words in her mind his mouth was gently claiming hers in a slow sweet kiss. This kiss was different from the one the night before, it wasn't incredibly passionate but tender, a gentle glide of lips getting to know each other. Sheldon kept one hand at the back of her neck, cradling her head gently while the other arm encircled her waist, pulling her to him.

Penny sighed into the kiss, allowing her body to melt into his as she brought one hand up to rest on his bicep and the other to play with the soft, short hairs at the base of his neck. It went on a moment longer, no hurried passion just two people enjoying the feel of one another before Sheldon pulled back and rested his forehead against hers.

"Wow," he breathed.

"Yeah," she agreed, nodding her head slightly, still caressing the back of his neck lightly.

Sheldon straightened and kissed Penny on the cheek, "Good night, Kitten, I'll see you in the morning."

"Good night, Cooper," Penny said.

He stood there a moment longer, waiting for her to unlock her door and go safely inside before turning to ascend the stairs to his apartment above.


End file.
